Unloading Day

After a wonderful 10 hours sleep at my parent’s quiet country home, I was ready for a busy day. My father accompanied me to Trenton (in his own vehicle) to help with the unloading.

I was just arriving to Base when my cell phone rang. It was the driver (Marcel) wondering where I was. It was 08h00. I arrived at the house before I had the chance to tell him I was almost there.

Marcel had been trying to get through to Base Traffic for permission to unload the truck but I had to go to CFHA to get the keys for the house. I signed a lot of papers at CFHA, and gave them copies of the power of attorney and the house insurance. CFHA will not allow you to move into a PMQ without liability insurance.

After a quick stop at Tim Hortons (I think there is one on every Base), I zoomed back to the house to start unloading. I ran around the house sticking signs on all the doors indicating “Boy’s room,” “Girl’s room,” “Family Room” etc. so they guys would know where to put things.

My Dad was set up with the Bingo Sheet. Remember all the tags that the driver put on every piece of furniture and box that went onto the truck? Well, they all have to be checked off as they come off the truck.

Any items that DO NOT have tags are set aside. Sometimes one item will have two tags as they rub off and stick to other boxes on the truck. These items are then cross-checked with the inventory list that the driver and the customer sign at the origin.

My Dad took the time to remove all the packing tape and fold all the moving blankets as they were removed from the furniture. This made the job go much faster especially as we had a few drops of rain in the late afternoon.

We had a quick lunch of pizza and finished the unloading in 9 hours. I took a quick picture of (some of) my plastic bins before they came off the truck. The movers had never seen someone with so many bins. I guess they don’t often move people like me.

When we brought the fridge in, we had a bit of a panic because it wouldn’t fit into the kitchen. We had to remove the fridge door first. That wasn’t a big deal because the way the kitchen is organized in this house, I wanted the door to open the other way anyway.

The beds were put together and placed in the correct spot in each room, but the sheets were still in a box somewhere.

All in all, the unloading day went very smoothly, I even met new a neighbour who helped balance our piano as it was unloaded.

When the truck was empty the driver and I signed more papers noting all the things that were broken or missing. Here is the list:

• left rear wheel of piano cracked

The truck rolled away from the house, my Dad returned to his house and I went to the hotel. I went to dinner at a local restaurant then returned to the hotel and slept for 10 hours straight.