Random Thoughts Anew

[AmLitHist]

Why did it take me until today to discover the Superbowl Reddit?  (NOT about sports.)  Now I can split my time-wasting between this and the Crochet Reddit.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Why did it take me until today to discover the Superbowl Reddit?  (NOT about sports.)  Now I can split my time-wasting between this and the Crochet Reddit.

Reddit is a black hole. How's your foot?

[AmLitHist]

Why did it take me until today to discover the Superbowl Reddit?  (NOT about sports.)  Now I can split my time-wasting between this and the Crochet Reddit.

Reddit is a black hole. How's your foot?

It truly is. But it lets me look like I'm paying attention during Zoom meetings (as I stare at the screen scrolling through Reddit).  :-)

The foot is a PitA.  I'm 10 days out from surgery and a lousy patient.  I go back Thursday to get stitches out (I hope--I popped 2 of them on the bottom of the foot, oops, and have a lovely 6-inch plus scar from around my ankle bone toward my little toe).  Hopefully I won't get a plaster cast, but even best-case, it's another 4 weeks in the Big Ole Gray Boot. SIGH.  All in all, I'm fine--just tired of dealing with it. And I've only taken 4-5 pain pills the whole time, which is good.

[secundem_artem]

This place is pretty quiet since the mods sent you know who into a permanent time out.

[ergative]

Last time I got movers to give me a quote for a job, they went around with a little clipboard or ipad and actually ticked off an inventory. It took a while. This time round they seem perfectly happy just to wander around, eyeballing, and concluding 'Yup, looks pretty normal for a two-bedroom, but that's a lot of books' and providing an estimate after ten minutes.

Is the difference...
-Regional? Maybe California moving companies are just real sticklers?
-Distance of the move? (local guys with a few trucks don't have worry about exact weights, etc., since they're not coordinating with big national truckers or international partners to pay for cross-continent/transatlantic shipping)
-Have movers just gotten chiller over the years?

[secundem_artem]

Last time I got movers to give me a quote for a job, they went around with a little clipboard or ipad and actually ticked off an inventory. It took a while. This time round they seem perfectly happy just to wander around, eyeballing, and concluding 'Yup, looks pretty normal for a two-bedroom, but that's a lot of books' and providing an estimate after ten minutes.

Is the difference...
-Regional? Maybe California moving companies are just real sticklers?
-Distance of the move? (local guys with a few trucks don't have worry about exact weights, etc., since they're not coordinating with big national truckers or international partners to pay for cross-continent/transatlantic shipping)
-Have movers just gotten chiller over the years?

Next time I move, I'm just gonna have a fire and let the insurance company buy me a new place. 

[ab_grp]

Ergative, I don't know... maybe they have more flexibility if it's local, so if they have to send another truck or piece of equipment out it is not such a big deal? When I moved a couple thousand miles, I was surprised at how casual the guy who came to do the inventory was with his estimate, but it worked out, so I guess he knew what he was doing.  It was so overwhelming to me.  Not just moving that far, to a place I didn't know too well, but moving from an apartment, so if I left or missed anything then too bad.  I would have to try to fit it in my little car with the rest of the stuff to drive out myself.  Your question led me to look back at the estimates, and I had forgotten how comparatively little packing added to the estimate.  I ended up going in that direction but now cannot believe I ever considered going with the no-packing estimate.  After I moved all the way out here into a rental house, we (me, husband, stepkids) moved into our own home a month later (ugh!! way too soon!) just 10-15 mins away, and we did it ourselves with friends.  What a lot of extra work that was.  Next time, I will hire movers again, no matter how far I am moving.  In any case, I think you might be right about the weights to a large extent.  My long-distance freight estimate had both cubic feet and weight.  When you get a UHaul, that's mostly about cubic feet instead of weight, so I imagine it's similar for local movers.  They may need to know if there are specific pieces that are super heavy, expensive, etc., but other than that it is probably about space.  Most people probably have similar types of items in their homes that need to be moved, if I had to guess.  They will probably be happy if they are packing the books so as not to use boxes that are too big.  Before I moved to the apartment from my old house (which I was doing with one of my friends via UHaul), I had packed all my books myself very neatly and found that it was impossible to lift the boxes.  So I had to re-allocate books to other boxes, some containing clothing.  My poor friend still brings up the boxes labeled "dresses" that weighed a lot more than a box of dresses should.  All three moves took place within a total of 6 months, and at no time did I learn the lesson to start packing sooner.  Maybe secundem_artem has the right idea.

[secundem_artem]

As told to me by an insurance investigator.

The oil in potato chips is quite flammable.  All you need to is leave a big back of Lay's very near a burner on high and then go out for the night while "forgetting" you left the stove on.  Apparently this is a lot harder to prove as arson than an electrical fire or dowsing your living room in gasoline and tossing in a match. 

Moving - it's the worst.

[mamselle]

I've always packed sweaters or blouses on the bottom and sides, then books, then a topping layer of scarves or more blouses.

Keeps the weight down and protects the books.

I don't recall who taught me this--or maybe I read it somewhere--but I knew it by the time I moved to the campus at the end of high school.

M.

[apl68]

We've received a catalog from Nomis, which specializes in items for the mortuary industry.  Many of the ads are for hearses.  More hearses than you can shake a stick at!  Apparently you can get a late-model hearse for as little as $40,000, although I would guess that this is an outlier.  There are also dealers that provide hearses with all-wheel drive.  Which I guess could be an issue for some of the more isolated rural cemeteries.

[ergative]

One advantage of having bought all our furniture from second-hand thrift shops or donations from professors who didn't need that bookcase anymore is that I'm very chill about things getting damaged. Aside from my grandmother's wedding china and my art supplies, there is very little in my possession that I would grieve losing. Even my favorite armchair and couch are beginning to show their age. (Well, I'd be annoyed if my books got soaked, but barring unexpected floods books are pretty sturdy things once they're boxed. I think mamselle's books are fancier than mine.)

Given how expensive boxes and packing tape can be, the cost of adding packing service--which includes those supplies (and they pick them up again after you've unpacked!)--is incredibly low! Never again will I forgo it!

Apl68, do you know what got you on the Nomis mailing list?

[apl68]

Apl68, do you know what got you on the Nomis mailing list?

Beats me.  Maybe my predecessor ordered a catalog from them years ago for a local funeral director?  Libraries tend to receive all sorts of unsolicited mailings.

Some of us have been looking at their ads for wicker coffins, pet urns, lifts guaranteed to handle over 1,200 pounds, roll-in "coolers" with room for up to three, flower stands, etc.  Every trade has its trade dealers who supply specialty items.  It's kind of interesting to check these out.  You might be surprised at some of the things you can find in a library supply catalog....

Honestly, I'd much rather order from a library catalog than an undertakers' catalog.

If you're really curious, they have a web site (naturally) at:

https://www.nomispublications.com/

Wonder if they still sell the plush bears that say "I love my funeral director?"

[apl68]

Currently have a colleague from a neighboring town browsing our big book donation from last week.  She was almost squealing over the big selection.  I understand how she feels.  We have to drive one to three hours in any direction to visit an actual book store.  Plus, at those you have to, you know, pay to get any books.

[mamselle]

Hmmm...I could send you some books...

M.

[apl68]

Sunday morning we had a baptism at church.  Always a joyous occasion, but this one wasn't quite like any I've seen before.  It's not unusual for ministers to baptize their own children.  Dad baptized me, for example.  What I'd never seen before was a pastor baptizing his own wife.  It seems that she made a profession of faith while in college, but spent her college years in a student ministry group, not a full-fledged church.  Apparently nobody ever counseled her to be baptized. 

I think she may have been baptized as a child in another tradition.  More recently she has realized that she needed to be baptized as a believer to be in compliance with the New Testament.  So she has now followed through with that.

It's a good thing to witness at any age.