And When We Were Wrong . . .

Friday last, I received a phone call from the freight carrier I hired to bring the two pallets of stuff I shipped from Irvine to Oslo in February.  I shipped ocean freight from LA to Oslo to save money, but once it arrived at the Port of Oslo, and cleared customs, I had to make arrangements for getting the pallets from Port of Oslo to our home in Trondheim.  It is about 300 miles from Oslo to Trondheim.

Back to the phone call.  The guy at the freight carrier company said that he was loading my stuff on a truck that had to go to Mo i Rana (which is another 300 miles north of Trondheim).  His truck would pass through Trondheim on the way to Mo i Rana, so he gave me the choice of having the truck offload on the way up, or on the way back down.  He cautioned, however, that if we chose "on the way up" the truck would probably not get to our house until 1 or 2 a.m.  "Uhhh, I'll choose 'on the way back'".  OK, then, some time in the afternoon on Saturday.

Some time in the afternoon on Saturday ended up meaning a quarter to midnight (11:45PM).

The two Moroccan truck drivers drove their truck onto the walking paths, instead of taking the road that would bring them directly behind our house, right next to the gate to our back yard.

They drove the truck up this walk way. 

When they opened the back of the truck . . . "Where are the pallets?"  "Pallets?", they responded.  No pallets -- boxes, we were given boxes, no pallets.  Now, I'm worried.  Tove and I personally packed the pallets and we were careful to pack them securely so that nothing would get damaged.  Loose boxes in the back of a truck, well, I was not too sure about that.

So we unloaded the truck, box by box.  Among the things we had packed were two pieces of framed art.  The art itself was not expensive, but I spent serious money on the frames.  Uhh, mister truckdriver man, where is the second painting?  "No two paintings.  Just one." 

Nooo, there were TWO! I KNOW.  I packed them!  Where is the second painting?  We just deliver what is given to us, we no know where second painting is. 

Tove and I are quite upset by this time.  I'm frustrated and furious. " If the freight carrier had just loaded the two friggin' pallets without deconstructing them, all would be fine", I am thinking.

Sir, you must sign the paper of receipt.  I can't sign the receipt, I'm missing the painting and God knows what else.  I may be missing more, I won't know until I "inventory" everything.  By the way, it's now 12:45 a.m., now. 

Sir if you don't sign we have to put back in the truck.  Tove suggests we call the police.  Trucker suggests we call his boss.  I choose option 2.  Boss says let him sign it with reservations and let the chips fall where they may.  So I signed and wrote that at least one item, a painting, and maybe more, were missing -- I would have to do an inventory. 

The guys leave and I decide to write an email to the freight company while I am still angry forgetting that "Restraint of pen and tongue have always served me well".  Oh, how I wished I had remembered that phrase.  So I write the email, send it, shut down the pc and start unpacking the boxes.

About 2:00 a.m., I am unpacking a big box of stuff.  "Hey, Tove, look what I found!"  Yes, the painting.  As soon as we saw it we both remembered how we had initially packed it by itself in a thin carton and bubble wrap, but then changed our minds and decided to stuff it in a big box, well protected on all sides by "popcorn" and towels and stuff. 

Happy to find the painting, but boy, did we feel bad!  The email! Oh no, the email!  I will have to write an apology as soon as I get up tomorrow.  I needed to promptly admit my mistake.  So Sunday morning the first thing I do is turn on my PC, then open Outlook to write the apology.  I have Outlook set to "Send/Receive upon opening".  When I open Outlook, I notice an email in my "Out Box"!  Apparently I had closed my PC before the message was sent.  But, I realize, slowly, half-awake, that I have to stop the email from being sent. 

What to do what to do!  I try to open up the "outbox folder" but the app freezes on me. Damn!  It does not occur to me to turn off the connection to the internet.  Control Alt Delete, Control Alt Delete, dammit, Control Alt Delete, Task Manager, close app is all I can think of.  Too late! The email is "sent".  Dammit dammit dammit.  I calm down to write a full and complete apology.  Part of me wants to explain how if they had not broken down the pallets none of this would have happened.  But that is NOT an apology.  And it wasn't true, either.  So I actually restrained myself and stuck to an unfettered complete apology.

Anyway, my stuff's here now.