Mover booked!

Post #8

Days to Departure from Saskatoon: 19

Days to Departure from Western Canada: 37

Today I finally found time to send out requests for estimates from movers. A tip for any moving company reps who might happen by and read this: I am so used to doing business on the Internet that if I found from the phone book or a website that I would have to phone rather than email to get an estimate (because no email address was provided), I didn’t bother with that company. It is so much faster to send an email request to eight movers at once (using bcc, of course) than to call them one at a time, phoning doesn’t seem worth the time. However, I did include my phone number with my emailed request for estimates, so that movers could call me if I hadn’t provided them with enough information.

Since my move is small, from a small two-bedroom to a storage unit, it was not necessary for the moving companies to come out and look over the situation before they were able to give me a quote. We ball-parked it — estimating that to load the belongings and take them to the storage unit and unload them would take two “men” (are they ALL men? That’s how they quote) three or four hours. One company estimated it would take three men five to six hours! They obviously didn’t want my business. But three others were fairly close to one another. I chose the company that phoned and asked a few questions, and assured me that they would wrap any valuables in plastic wrap and leave the wrap on them so that they were protected when they came out of storage as well. The two companies that haven’t got back to me yet are out of luck.

So Saskatoon Moving will be here at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, October 26. Once I had that settled, I booked a flight to Edmonton from Saskatoon for the next day on a seat sale. It was only $45! Plus tax (which doubled the cost, but still). Then I booked a rental car in Edmonton — and there I found one company’s cost varied from another’s by more than $100/week. Amazing.

I find that in the mornings when I wake up, I feel as though I have lots of time to get everything done before I have to leave Saskatoon, but by the end of the day (as now), I find myself panicking that I will not. I hit what is likely to be the closest perspective to reality at about 4 p.m., I guess: and at those times, I know I will make my deadlines, but I also know I may not get all the fine sorting done that I had hoped to do before I go.

So there’s progress. And today there was a snowstorm in Saskatoon to help remind me of one of the reasons why I’m leaving. It was so beautiful here last week that I thought maybe I’d just been dreaming prairie winters all these years. Not.