Ice and Water

[llcoolvad]

Well! Quite an eventful day!

My car doesn't start when it is low on gas and it's stormy out, so naturally I was dumb and didn't stop to fill it up last night. Today? The day after a big snow/rain/ice event? Car does not start. So I worked from home and tried to call AAA, which was BUSY all day, so I went to their website and realized that you can "call in" roadside assistance online! No operator, no possibility of misunderstanding, nothing! Awesome! The AAA truck showed up in a little over an hour, brought me a couple of gallons of gas, and waited while I started up.

One crisis averted. A few hours later, while I'm busily working away, my phone rings. It's my storage unit people. "Laurie? Blah blah, water, storm, check unit, blah." And I did. And there were wet boxes! In my storage unit! Where my 2,500 books live! AAAAARGH!

So I need to move this weekend. One unit to another. This is my second water event in the same unit, so it's time to get the hell out. I'm staying in the same facility, because I got them to give me a free month's rent and a discount on the new (larger) unit. Outside of the flood zone (I hope).

I am very nervous to see the extent of the water. It didn't look that bad -- I just don't want to ignore TWO warnings. My unit is SO FULL, I can't even imagine the moving. They have really large carts, so it's not like I'll have to drag it all by hand, but even so. I'm going to Home Depot later this week to see if I can get some pallets to put under my books. Most other stuff is in plastic boxes or on top of stuff in plastic boxes, so I am hopeful. Nervous and hopeful.

Comments

[zanzjan.livejournal.com]

Failing the acquisition of pallets, cinder/patio blocks and 2x4s work quite well and also tend to be cheap (plus you can get them at Home Despot while you're there asking for pallets!)

Sorry I'm all permacrippled and can't help. )-: I will keep my fingers and toes crossed for your books... my 4,000 or so are in boxes in my basement, with only a thin layer of 2x4s between them and the floor. I've been lucky to not have any flooding (knocks on wood), but I think this summer I'm going to build paperback shelves for the basement to get them up off the floor.

[rolandgsl.livejournal.com]

I've had good luck getting pallets from smaller chain stores (like iParty), the bigger ones (Walmart, esp) all have management plans for their pallets...

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

OOh, good tip, thanks! Much like my secret supplier of cardboard boxes, Barnes and Noble. They've helped me move a couple times!

[kicking-k.livejournal.com]

AAUUUUUGH!

I would be horrorstruck if anything happened to my books...

[llcoolvad.livejournal.com]

The books are along the back wall of the unit, so I won't know until we move everything else if they've been affected. Here's hoping that they aren't, but if they are, here's hoping what's affected is the box of my old highschool textbooks, rather than something good or useful (and yes, I still have highschool textbooks, why do you ask?).

[kicking-k.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't ask. I would, too, were it not that my two younger siblings did almost all of the subjects I did and so inherited them (and my brother destroyed them fairly effectively...)