The move from hell. At least it is over.

Much went right. The pack and load in Dallas was superb. The delivery at our condo in Greenville, SC, yesterday went well, considering the painters were not through in the unit.

The big problem began when the local movers that I hired to shuttle most of the Dallas furniture and many, many boxes from the "mother" truck in Greenville to the mountain house (55 miles) showed up. They confronted me with what constituted a mutiny against their management and dispatcher. They did not do mountains, I was told. Cool. As an airline captain I did not do thunderstorms. I understand fear. I sent them back to their shop.

As we scrambled for back-ups, the 18-wheeler driver approached me. He said to rent two Penske 15-ft trucks and he and his assistant (his nephew) would drive them up to the mountain house when they got through unloading at the condo and at Dr. DemoTex's new office. These two guys were so great that I jumped at the offer. We rented the trucks and waited for the guys to finish unloading in Greenville. We anticipated heading for the mountain at 3 pm yesterday.

Instead, we left Greenville at 8:35 pm. We arrived here on the mountain at 10:15. I offered beds for the night. I offered ham, eggs, and cheese grits. I offered Cafe Bustello coffee. I drank the coffee. They unloaded furniture and boxes in the chilly (38-degree F) night air of the higher elevation. They finished unloading (and loading old furniture that I gave to them) at 0215 (2:15 AM!). After I paid them it was 2:25 before they rolled down my driveway. Great guys.

I was wired. I fixed a strong Scotch and water and tried to log-on to DU. It was down. I went to bed at about 3:30 AM.

At 10:30 this morning I called Penske to see if the guys turned in the trucks OK (they had left the 18-wheeler on the Pensky lot). "Not exactly," I was told. One truck had been damaged (side-swiped down the right side). Mirror gone. Door handle gone. Other damage too. Of course, the rental was on DemoTex's American Express card, so I am the financially responsible entity. The driver's license presented for the truck that was damaged was the CDL (Commercial Driver's License) of the 18-wheeler driver. My driver's license was used for the other truck. However, he drove my truck and his nephew/helper drove the truck in his name.

Here is the bitch: The CDL presumes a higher level of driving skill, thus the Penske insurance option carries a much higher deductible for a CDL. $5000! So, looks like I'll be out two or three grand for that little accident (I still don't know what happened) last night.

That totally sucks.

I'm feeling the pain here, and it's not my problem. Can't imagine how you feel. That just really, really sucks.

I've been moving furniture, unrolling rugs, and unpacking boxes all day. I'm in bad, bad pain right now. Got a little Shiraz to help, though.

eom

The trucks were not on my AMEX card. That never got processed. They were on the AMEX card of my wife's antique dealer (Linda) who arranged the trucks. Linda has: 1. An excellent relationship with Penske as a big customer, and; 2. Experience using AMEX to reduce the rip-off factor of this kind of claim.

I will stand for the damage if it comes to that, but things are looking up.

second only to a death in the family.

Glad it's over, good luck in your new digs.

:toast: