6 Days and a $52 story!

In order to transport all my framed work to the show, it must be secured so it won’t get chipped, cracked or broken. I have nearly 40 framed pieces, of all shapes and sizes, so that means a lot of bubble wrap. It’s the easiest and lightest way to protect it all…which again means a LOT of bubblewrap. I priced out rolls at places like Wal-Mart, FedEx, shipping stores, etc. and found that a current vendor of ours sells it in rolls or various widths and sizes. Sounds perfect, huh!?! So I placed an order for two roles of bubble wrap along with two boxes of shopping bags that will accommodate the various smaller framed and unframed pieces. When I finished the order, the vendor wanted to charge me $52 to ship it, due to the rolls being rolls instead of boxes. I checked their address and they have a distribution center in Buford, GA so I opted to pick it up myself. Buford is about 30 miles from my office, so I figure I can go on my lunch hour and pick it up.

I arrived there on Wednesday of this week to pick it up in my car…and the minute the fork lift brought my order to the loading dock I knew I was in trouble. None of that would fit in my car. So I politely told them my vehicle was too small and would have to come back later in the week with a larger vehicle. This morning Kevin and I swapped cars, he took my sedan I took his Land Rover Freelander. Not a huge SUV, but a much bigger cargo area than my sedan.

Have you ever gone on a family vacation and had so much luggage that while it all sits on your driveway your Dad surveys the items to figure out how in the world ALL THAT is going to fit into the car? And magically it does…or he tells you to unpack, get a smaller bag or suddenly items begin to appear INSIDE the car in order to get it all to your destination! Today was that day for me.

I had one huge roll of bubble wrap, and I do mean HUGE. Two boxes of shopping bags, and one mini SUV cargo area…the laws of physics and spacial equations were not on my side. The guy stepped off the fork lift and scratched his head…for a while. He said’ “Uh, ma’am, I don’t think this is all going to fit into that.” (It’s always a shock to me when ‘young men’ call me ma’am..it added insult to injury for me at this moment!) I then looked at what he was looking at, namely the open back gate of a mini SUV with the seats flipped back. Not a huge space by any stretch of the imagination, but what’s a girl to do? This was my shot, today had to be the day because I was NOT going to come back for a third time and we don’t have a larger vehicle (our truck is visiting the rear end doctor at the moment). So my reply was, “Well, as my Dad always says, there’s more than one way to skin a cat…and this is that day. This is the only vehicle I have, so let’s go!”

He grabbed the roll of bubble wrap and shoved it into the cargo area, and shoved, and shoved and shoved. When he was finished, it stuck out six inches and the door would not close. In the mean time, two other men step up to my car and begin watching this process. They didn’t offer to help, they just stood there with their mouths hanging open watched this woman shove the back of the HUGE roll and try her darndest to move it even an inch. Nothing moved. The employee then lifted one of the boxes of bags and looked at me…as if I were master of the universe and could bend space at my whim and would know where to put it in a now bubble wrap full vehicle!!! So I told him to put it in the front seat – somehow. He did – after about ten attempts…while I was shoving bubble wrap from the other end of the car. I then began shoving on the cargo door to see if it would close, no luck. Shoved again, no luck…while the two ninnies were STILL standing there at this point smiling and grinning and pointing. I felt like a side-show at the circus and I didn’t get a portion of the ticket take…

With one determined and angry shove, the back gate closed – success. But there was still one more box of bags on the loading dock. I asked the employee, who I now know was named Bobby, if he had a box cutter…he pulled one out and I proceeded to cut open the box and pull out the bags. I shoved stacks of bags anywhere there was space – back seat floor, under the rolled edges of the bubble wrap, under the front seats – any where. NOW I was motivated. I saw light at the end of the tunnel and knew it wasn’t another box…

When I had emptied the box, Bobby asked me if I wanted the empty box – of course I did…what was I going to do with all those bags once I got them home without a box? So he cut up the box and I shoved it into the back area – somewhere. TA DA!!! it was all in there. Now to get back to work, then get home without being stopped, run over or having something spontaneously fling open and everything spill out.

So here is the picture of the car – I took it the next day so you could have a laugh. And that is me next to the HUGE roll of bubble wrap. Where there’s a will there’s a way…the story alone is worth the $52 I saved on shipping!

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