The Container

Alright , so Outpost 24 ( Ron's work ) ordered a container for Jack ( Ron's co - worker ) , Ron and myself.The container was ordered through a company that offered "door to door" service.This meant that the container would be brought to us and that we would fill it with all our belongings and that everything would be shipped to Sweden . We were really excited about this because originally we thought that we would have to leave everything we own in America and bring only a suitcase of our belongings with us - and believe me , as much as I tried I could not fit all my clothes and shoes and beauty products in one suitcase !! The container was going to show up at Jacks apartment in Costa Mesa for us to put all our stuff in.Ron was the one doing all the organizing and making sure everything was happening on schedule since Jack had already moved to Sweden.We were leary of the container company from the get go because the date that the container was supposed to be at Jacks got delayed a day on short notice. Ron and I rented a U - Haul truck to load all of our boxes and furniture into and then drove the U-Haul to Jacks apartment so that we could load everthing into the container at the same time. We labeled all of our boxes and made lists of what was in each box ... then we went to Jacks apartment early on the day of to label his boxes .We also bubble wrapped everything and used this crazy green wrap stuff ... we were pretty careful and just wanted to make sure everything was ready to go.

The day the container came ... was a mess.The container was supposed to be at Jacks apartment at around 10 am , so Ron and I got there early and Ron called some friends to help us move stuff once it got there.Of course hours go by and we are all sitting around wondering where this thing is! Ron is on and off the phone all morning with the company asking the where abouts of the container and asking why the container was not on time.Of course we get no actual anwsers and just end up waiting. All Rons friends left because they had to go to work so Ron and I were left twidling our thumbs for a few hours.

Finally the truck driver with the container calls Ron and he is near Jack's apartment complex.We call Tyler , Rons friend, and he comes over right away to help.When the driver pulls up he looks a little confused and then goes on to ask us where the loading dock is.He might have been expecting a loading dock but that was not the case in this situation ... he would be pulling into an apartment complex . Haha. You can only imagine. After watching a huge truck with a container come down a slim alley way behind the apartment complex and then do a 38 point turn down a driveway to Jacks apartment - we were pretty impressed.We had one hour to load Jacks stuff into the container and our stuff from the U-Haul to the container .So we got started.Our roomate Eric also showed up to help out. The only problem with loading the container was that it was about 4 feet off the ground ... so with some stuff being as heavy as it was I was suprised we got everything thing in the container without going over the one hour time limit and without anyone seriously injuring themselves! Well , here are the pictures ......





So here we are in Sweden and our container has arrived.Let me tell you , it was a strange feeling to see this large green container that we packed all our belongings into when we were in Huntington Beach.We felt really excited and just happy that it made its way across land and sea all the way over here across the world to Sweden.Of course receiving the container did not run smoothly either.The driver only spoke Swedish , luckily we had Ron's co - worker Sam with us to talk to him and translate for us.Well , Jack lives on a single lane road down in the forest.....and apparently these truck drivers get really nervous about driving down narrow roads and are afraid of not being able to turn around ... which is understandable.Except that the company sells door to door service to people like us and we are not prepared to accomodate industrial trucks ... so why offer this service? We dont have loading docks or huge driveways ... or well, anything that these truck drivers seem to expect when they arrive.Sam said that the driver was unsure that he would be able to drive up to Jacks house.So that presented a huge problem.We started to think about what we could possibly do ... maybe rent a trailer and have the truck drop the container in a spacious area and we could drive the trailer back and forth to Jacks ? But that would take forever and would just be more expensive . So we found a street the driver could turn his truck around and everything worked out fine.Well , until we opened the container. Ron had purchased this nice filing cabinet right before we found out we would be taking off to Sweden.We were so sad when we thought we would have to leave it in America.Well we were even more sad when we opened the container and saw that it was destoyed!! We came to find out later that at some point in transit the container got flipped over!! Haha ! Can you believe it ! Well, everything else made it and we were happy to just have our stuff and be done with the container situation! Here are the pictures ...