The drive up was a royal pain, but made better with the help of Crystals Dad Ernie along for the trip. He drove the rental truck up, I drove my truck up, we both suffered thru the onslaught of pot holes up the I-5 corridor thru California (no wonder I get so many claims out of that state). 1600 miles, one big right turn at L.A. and we were home in just under 29 hours. Hopefully, that is my last ever drive across the country moving, I'd do it again for site seeing or something, but never a move again. I was reminded how much I missed the great NW right when we hit the boarder for Oregon/California. The trees, the weather, the fresh air, it felt damn good to be back.
On the business side of things, it's really taking off. This week alone I received 11 jobs, thats a record, also set a daily record of 5 in one day. Just goes to show you, God had a plan, laid his hand on our shoulders, and made it happen. We had to work for it, but he did it and continues to show me this is where I belong.
Monday I went down to a local moving companies warehouse to take a look at a shipment that was on a trailer of theirs when it caught on fire. The story is that the driver was driving down the freeway in the middle of no where, when another trucker passed and flagged her down to let her know her trailer was on fire. This occured at 6 am, she called the fire department out, and 45 minutes later they arrived. The trailer was a total loss. Needless to say, the items inside were also a loss. So I went and spent 3 hours taking pictures of stuff that was charred, soaking wet, and stinking to all heck. While I was there, I met a corporate claims manager for Atlas Moving, one of the very big dogs in the moving industry. After a short chat with her about one of her loads, and some sweet talking on my part, I learned that she was unhappy with her firm here in the Portland/Vancouver area, because he was charging too much for his work and taking to long to complete it, and the firm she uses in the Seattle area was generating complaints of rudeness from her shippers. So, I told her what I offer in terms of pricing, and that I had never had a complaint yet. Those of you that used to work with me at 911 may find that statement odd as I think I generated at least one a month working there (and those are just the ones that were reported). She was happy to hear all of this, and made arrangements for me to be put into the Atlas system as a proffered vendor. So, needless to say, 3 days later, I was filling out the appropriate paperwork to get on that list, and as of about 15 minutes ago, it became official. I am now the go to guy here in the NW to serve Atlas and all of its adjusters here in the area. SCORE!!!!
This will likely turn out to be our lowest month yet, mostly because it took almost a week to get in touch with all the adjusters out there and let them know that we were up and running, but we will be ok. I'm confident that from this day forward, the work will be steady and bountiful as the Seattle area is still growing like a weed. Lots of housing up there (someone has to move into them!) and I've seen alot more new housing going on around here in the Portland/Vancouver area than I thought there would, and someone has to move into them also! I seem to be getting alot more people in apartments here than I was down in Tucson, which is ok, just makes finding a place to park a royal pain in the arse.
Elliot is doing very well, he is taking a nap now, which is helping me with my sanity as today is the first of 3 days where its just me and the little man. Crystal is off at a quilting retreat this weekend and probably sewing her eyes out as I type this. I could tell she was really looking forward to it, especially when she was up before me this morning and got up just before 6. I dont think I've ever seen her get up this early....ever. So I got up and dressed and helped her load her new mommy missle
Then she was off to the races before Elliot was even awake. He actually slept til 9 am! Which if you consider he was awake for about 2 hours during the middle of the night, isnt all that great.
Softball is going well, we won our 3rd game (2 and 1 overall) last night 10 to 4. I'm not sure whats going on, last time I played on this team, and this last spring down in Tucson I was hitting the ball really well, this season, not so good. Keep catching the ball with only a small portion of the bat. I'm still getting hits, but I think its mostly cause I keep hitting little bloopers that drop between the infielders and the outfielders are playing so deep (respect yo!) that they get caught when its a shallow fly ball. Its all hits in the in the books, but it's starting to make me mad I'm not making good contact. I'll hit the cages and figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Well, Elliot should be waking up soon, so I have to go prepare to play the human lounge chair again.
Softball is going well, we won our 3rd game (2 and 1 overall) last night 10 to 4. I'm not sure whats going on, last time I played on this team, and this last spring down in Tucson I was hitting the ball really well, this season, not so good. Keep catching the ball with only a small portion of the bat. I'm still getting hits, but I think its mostly cause I keep hitting little bloopers that drop between the infielders and the outfielders are playing so deep (respect yo!) that they get caught when its a shallow fly ball. Its all hits in the in the books, but it's starting to make me mad I'm not making good contact. I'll hit the cages and figure out what I'm doing wrong.
Well, Elliot should be waking up soon, so I have to go prepare to play the human lounge chair again.
