Thursday, September 16, 2010

If it's Latin, it must be true!

Before we came we had made arrangements to purchase our furnishings from a family who were on their way out. We saw a few photos and the price seemed right. We were told it wouldn't cost much to move things from where they were and that it would make the entire process of setting in much smoother and easier. Alas, this was not so. Caveat Emptor is the Latin phrase, and because it's in Latin, it means that someone learned this lesson many hundreds of years ago. I need to put more trust in dead languages. If something seems like it's too good to be true, it probably is.


I don't want to give the impression that we were ripped off or taken to the cleaners. The stuff we got is probably worth what we paid for it (whether it was worth what we paid to move it is another question entirely). However, had we been given our choice of furnishings or appliances, we probably would have gone a much different route and saved ourselves a few headaches.


When we arranged to move the stuff from a faraway town, we were unable to supervise the sorting and loading of the stuff onto the trucks. Simply put, in the rush to load and move the trucks, the filtering process was completely omitted. It took us the better part of a week to sift the possessions we bought from the lives of their previous owners. Journals, photographs, receipts and manual for phantom appliances filled boxes and drawers. Filtering our own possessions before leaving Nova Scotia was a relief. Going through this stuff was simply work without thecatharthis. Not fun.


The worn and threadbare furniture wouldn't fit down the hallway to the bedrooms, so it's the nicer stuff that's out of sight. The fridge overwhelms our kitchen and the washing machine had more than a small leak.


I need to close the book on this. My constant venting doesn't seem to relieve the stress building inside me, so I have to let go and move on, and if there's was lesson this adventure can teach me it's to let go of that which I can't control.


This is what I mean by lack of filters. Yes, those are trophies that were moved, and that is indeed a slab of concrete that was very carefully wrapped and boxed for us.

3 comments:

shawnr said...

I just... Wow. I love you guys. And I love that you wrote this entry. Thanks.

liz said...

Sorry about your moving mess. It's all part of the adventure, right? (this is the mantra of an ex-pat -- might as well learn it!) Excited to read more about your adventures!

therese said...

How exciting!!! Surely you will be displaying those trophies in a display case, right? How could you not! You earned them by sorting through all the other junk and refreshing your Latin...