The Saga of the Shipped Boxes

6-30-13

I just ordered a pick up of 10 12"x12"x12" boxes, 50 lbs each by ship to Taichung pick up in from 45-60 days of shipping. They'll come to my house July 9. The cost; $960.00. Much cheaper than sending it by air. It could arrive by the end of August. They will get in touch with me for more details. I paid with a credit card. I just saw 12"x12"x"12 boxes carry ten pounds of books. This is so convenient. I keep thinking it's too good to be true.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering about the $960 I paid on Visa for shipping ten boxes via sea; I don't have a receipt for the contract and the computer says it may be fraud. It seems like a real company but I have a booking form (HS 104008) from them but no e-mail receipt. I was told I would be contacted.

7-3-13 8:45am Wed. (*2)

I called up homeshippers.com to 'confirm' our arrangement. The credit card payment they take the day before they send Fed Ex to com pick the boxes up. I have to be packed by July 8th, by my own choice.

7-9-13

Leona and I went through this elaborate system to print the shipping labels returned a signed receipt. It was elaborate because our printer is connected to the desk-top which has no internet and the laptop which has no printer. Leona copied the attachments from homeshipping.com on a flash drive, uploaded it to the desk top, and printed it out. The attachment was sent, printed, signed, scanned, attached to a flash drive, downloaded in the laptop, and e-mailed back to the shipping agency.

7-10-13 6:16am Wed. (1)

At 3:30pm yesterday, FedEx came and picked up the ten 12"x12"x12" boxes to bring to the ship in New Jersey. It is supposed to arrive in Taichung 45-60 days later. I wonder which will get there first; the ten boxes or the sofa from Germany via China. Both are due by the end of August.

8-10-13

The Port of Taichung authority called yesterday for us to prepare customs documents for the ten boxes on the way here from Brooklyn. Right now they’re on a ship from L.A. somewhere on the Pacific Ocean. Leona said it would be $220us handling fee more.

Dining room furniture purchase

8-20-13 7:06am Thurs.(1) 141-86  

At the furniture store we bought three items totaling $700us: a hutch dresser, a vanity cabinet with hinged top revealing a ‘secret’ area, and a specialized chestnut, one-of-a-kind cat food (!) waste paper (?) cabinet all for the dining area, all solid wood.

      “A breakfront is a large cabinet or bookcase whose center section projects beyond the flanking end sections. A hutch is a set of shelves or cabinets placed on top of a lower unit with a counter and either drawers or cabinets. Hutches are often seen in the form of desks, dining room or kitchen furniture. It is frequently referred to by furniture aficionados as a hutch dresser. Meanwhile china cabinets feature two glass doors. Many china cabinets also feature glass sides encased in wood. This serves the purpose of fully displaying fine china or figurines. China cabinets often feature locks on the doors, as well. Hutches typically feature smaller display areas. While hutches often feature glass doors, the doors are much smaller than those found on china cabinets. Hutches are made from wood and can be painted or designed to fit the style of a house.” So say the experts

We bought a ‘hutch dresser’ yesterday because Taiwan, with its earthquakes, is not a good place for a china cabinet or breakfront to display upright china. We will lay the china and silverware down flat in its closets. On the hutch itself, we may put the strawberry teapot and some other stable dinner related items. I hope it doesn’t come with a glass table protector. Though it protects the furniture, the glass we have on the desk, coffee table and end table detract from the beauty of the wood.

Sofa Delivery Experience

      Today, our sofa is being delivered at 1:30pm

8-10-13 2:26pm Sat. (*2)

      The sofa was delivered and set up within the last hour.  I was unable to take any more photos or video of the sofa move.  I was able to take some videos on her camera of the crane lifting the sofa to our patio. I ended up using the camera feature on the Apple laptop to take the photos of them setting up the sofa.

      the deliverymen were positioning the furniture. They moved the entertainment center away from the center of the wall and pushed it to the right up against the shoe cabinet leaving a six foot space on the left side of the living room. I was making suggestions for how to place the sofa and entertainment center in the balance of the room. I suggested we move the hanging lamp to the left side of the sofa. The coffee table is the same length as the sofa, it leaves no space for the hassock meant to be in front. It was pushed off to the side near the fireplace; useless as a footrest. I rarely sit in the living room anyway because I don’t usually watch TV.

 

 

 

Back Home in Taichung

8-7-13 6:56am Wed. (1)

      We are back in our home in Taichung. We got to the airport at 10:30pm and home at 2am after a shaky drive back from Shih-Dong; he drove most of the way on the highway trying to stay in the left lane with his bright lights on! He had to stop at a rest stop to wake himself up. I offered to drive for him with my flashy new international driver’s license, but he ignored my offer.

      I wrote forty-three pages of the journal while I was on the road and in Brooklyn and am now up to page 290 for the year, with five months to go!

      The Giant ‘Roam’ bicycle is beckoning me. I put it in the dining room while we were away. I finally taught myself how to pump air into the tires by myself and it’s ready to ride. The front tire was half flat after not riding the bike for six weeks. I can’t wait to ride it up the Han-Xi River, which Leona said means “Dry Wash,” as descriptive as it is named.

      On the plane back, I read less than an hour of Last Words by George Carlin. I hardly did any reading at all in America. Also, I only wrote one depressing poem in six weeks there.

 America, in general, and New York City, specifically, is a depressing place. I feel lucky to have gotten away from there with only a scratch, now only scabs falling off of my right leg from a fall off the bike. 

 

8-7-13 5:23pm Wed. (*2)

      I’ve been putting away the extra books I brought back from Brooklyn. There are ten boxes more coming on a ship to Taichung forty-five to sixty days from July 9^th, the day they were picked up. There is space now in the three bookcases but they will be crowded once the ten boxes of mostly books arrive. It’s okay; there is room for another smaller bookcase in the study, if necessary.

Last Taichung day before Brooklyn visit

6-23-13 6:12am Sun. (2)

      Today is our last full day in Taiwan before we head back to Brooklyn for six weeks, mostly in July. I’m getting psyched by wearing jeans and my turquoise Caribbean black dude button –down shirt for the first time in weeks, to see if they fit and stretch them out. They do fit; they are a little tight. I will wear it on the airplane for two days; two days because we’ll fly to South Korea in the evening, spend the night in a hotel and continue our trip with another flight Tuesday.

 I just finished watching NYC News to check on the weather coming up. It will be almost Taiwan-like in the high 80’s with humidity and possible afternoon thunder- showers.

Today I’ll take the luggage down from the closets packing one carry-on bag inside two of the four suitcases. We will have one carry on for our stopover in Korea. All the suitcases and carry-ons will be empty when we go but all will be full when we return as we continue to move our belongings to Taiwan. In addition, I hope to pack up an additional ten boxes of printed material and electronics, even one French figurine lamp and lampshade from our living room in Brooklyn. We will have the lamp and shade repaired and restored here.

Taichung reading habits

6-18-13 9:58am Tues. (2) 141-80

      Rode the bike up     the Han River yesterday and got to the part in Return of the Native where Eustasia falls in the pond, Wildeve goes in after her, and Clym goes in after her, too. The first two die. Clym survives.

The past eight months in Taichung, the start of my retirement from FDR and the USA has seen me reading more than I had while I lived in Brooklyn. My increased reading time is directly related to not having to be at FDR seven to ten hours a day, and not smoking; I have more time and more concentration. My usual reading is non-fiction in the morning (especially when I went up on the roof of the Beverly with Sweeney-Poo, fiction when I ride up the Han River, newspapers in the afternoon (before or after lunch or before class on Tues. after the teachers’ meeting) and reading in bed before sleep. My reading habits have changed in the two weeks since we moved to the Renoir Condominium; no more roof-top reading with Sweeney-Poo and no more before bed reading for some reason, though I did start doing that again last evening.

New bike tire

 

6-4-13 9:29pm Tues. (*2)

      I got a new rear tire for the bicycle; 600NT ($20us.) It took seven months to wear the first one bald. The front tire is still okay and the Giant dealer left it on. I rode to the Giant dealer on Dong-Shan Road when I got back from my ride up the Han River this morning. They didn’t have the type of treaded road tire I use and told me to come back after 9pm to get it installed. I rode there on the way back from the class I was subbing for Tim from New Zealand; his parents were visiting Taiwan. They installed the tire right away and adjusted the gears.

Earthquake, Address, & Mantle Clock

We had a 6.5 earthquake yesterday at 3:45pm. I was listening to music on the balcony so I didn’t hear the windows rattling. I was shaking my leg in time to the music so, at first, I didn’t feel the building shaking. The epicenter was about twenty-five miles east of here. It was the third medium sized earthquake I’ve felt since moving here in October.  

 

6-4-13 6:58am Tues. (1)

      Leona and I went to the Beitun government office to change our official address. We then went to the Immigration office in Feng-Yuan to change my ARC card address. It will be ready to pick up June 18. While we were in Feng-Yuan we had lunch on Temple Street.

After lunch, we looked around for a transparent wall clock that I was thinking of putting on the glass above the door to the wash room. Leona knew of a few nearby jewelry stores that sold watches and clocks. We went there and saw some beautiful mantle clocks. It got me thinking that maybe we should have a mantle clock for our fireplace. The clocks we saw were shiny golden, imported, and too expensive so we gave up the brief hunt.

We were riding out of Feng-Yuan and had agreed to look for a clock in America when I noticed another jewelry store with clocks in the window. Leona stopped the scooter and we went over to look. There was one mantle clock in the window that appealed to both of us. There was nothing shiny about it except the clock face and the pink French design on the wood case was subtle and cool. The owner, a short sixty-year-old dude with a high ‘George of the Jungle’ hair lick came out when he saw us looking. He was a fourth generation old-timer shop owner, great grandmother sitting on the side welcoming us. Outside and inside, four or five draped bird cages hung with birds chirping inside. I couldn’t help but notice how he and the elderly matron had jaws that made them look birdlike.

We went into the store and inquired about the Japanese Lexel clock. He tried to show us a more elaborate model but we wanted this one. He went through an assortment of batteries and put them into this modern retro clock; none of them seemed to work. The clock has a nice ding-dong-ding-dong Tower of London chime though. Finally, he seemed to find new batteries and deemed the clock ready for sale. It was a one-of-a-kind with no box so he put it in a colorful nylon tote bag and handed it to Leona. She paid the 3,500NT ($116us) price and we left.

When we got home, we put the clock on the fireplace mantle. It looked so good! There was only one problem; the clock was running too slow! There was something wrong with it. I suggested we call the store and let them know we wanted to return it. Leona said she wasn’t given a receipt and didn’t know the name of the store, only the location! She was ready to ride her scooter in the sweltering heat forty minutes back to the shop. I forbid her from doing it until tomorrow. She let it go and went to washing the floors. I got ready to go to American Eagle but, before I left, I held the clock and gave it a few whacks with the palm of my hand.

After teaching, I came home and looked at the clock on the mantle. I noticed the clock had the same correct time as on my wristwatch. I was bewildered because when I left, I thought it didn’t work. Leona said she didn’t know what happened but I must have done something to fix it. I told her that I had whacked it a few times. Apparently, that did the trick! It now works fine.

Wine in Taichung

6-2-13
Friday evening, Leona and I shared a bottle of Spanish Reserva 2004 Marques de Caceres Rioja ($40us) for a toast to our new home. It was one of our favorite wines in Brooklyn for $24us. Yesterday I used an Italian Marsala ($29us) that would be under $10 in Brooklyn. Last night we shared a bottle of Chilean Reserva 2011 Casillero del Diablo Merlot which we got in Family Mart for $18us; it would be $12us in Brooklyn. The wine and liquor prices are way too expensive here but at least you can get it; I even saw a bottle of Grand Marnier at Far Eastern. My favorite hard liquor, Mescal and Tequila are available.

The nicest study I've ever known

6-1-13

It is so comfortable sitting here in the study, the nicest study I ever could call my own. With the beautiful Japanese cedar bookcases and a desk outfitted with stereo speakers, computer monitor, keyboard and mouse, LED lamp on a floor stand leaning over, air conditioner above to my left and remote control on the desk top, Post-it note pads and a box of facial tissues, pencil holder and tape dispenser, beautiful Taiwan bamboo grove and mountain view through the office and patio windows behind me, two cats lying comfortably on the wood laminate floor, cup of coffee and plate of buttered toast just eaten, land line phone, scanner/copier, and Apple laptop computer on a table just behind me, Tom Keough’s prints of Brooklyn on the walls, it has everything I could ever want in an office. It’s quiet and cool and there is even a built-in wardrobe closet with Leona’s shoes and utility closet within,  upper cabinets with empty luggage and fresh toilet paper and hand towel supplies, full length mirror on the closet door, disassembled cat kennels atop, a hat hanger with two baseball caps and umbrellas over a closet door.

Hex repellant mirror and dried up Han River

5-31-13

Since I put the reflective mirror and hexagram plaque over the outside of our bedroom door, I feel more comfortable and relaxed in the bedroom. Some old nosy bitch had spoken with Leona our first day here and felt the need to tell her the feng-shui in our bedroom was bad; ‘our bed facing doors across from a building edge that acted like a knife,’ instead of welcoming us and wishing us luck. Her apartment unit was better. The two-sided tape over the outside of the sliding doorway told me there had been a ‘demon deflector’ there before so, when Leona and I were shopping in the hardware store, I saw and picked up a replacement. I see it mostly as a decoration. I respect and utilize the I Ching so it’s not that far-fetched.

      It is going to be another hot day. It may be dry this week but Leona said the plum rains are coming back next week. Yesterday I rode up the Han for only the first time this week because of all the interior decorating in the morning and the need I felt to be here to see that the workers were doing what I wanted. I will ride up there again today. The Han River is almost dry downstream. It’s been hot and there’s been no rain for a week

Taichung Condo's clogged lines

5-30-13

I just emptied out a full bucket of water extracted from the air in the study by the air conditioner. The tube the technicians put into the Renoir Condominium’s water evacuation system in the enclosed patio didn’t work; the water came out through the electric outlet near the floor.

      The cable guys came yesterday to activate our TV and internet services. One guy had come a few days ago without a drill to put the cable through the wall. Yesterday, two guys came without a drill to put the cable through the wall! The line from the cable box in the hall was good, unlike our next door neighbor who had to have an additional wire run from the box to their home. Initially, the line from the cable outlet in the living room to the cable outlet in the bedroom was blocked but there were able to extract a small rock that was blocking the canal; they didn’t have to run an unsightly wire through the house into the study. Instead, they were going to run an unsightly wire up the wall in the bedroom through the air-conditioner duct, six feet over the floor along the wall on the outside patio, through the whole drilled for the air-conditioner lines at the top of the enclosed patio, through the air con hole drilled into the study, down the wall behind the bookcases (I would have to move them) and across the floor to the corner where the hard drive will be kept.

 I told Leona not to let them do it! She argued with me again, taking the technicians side instead of the better judgment for taste, perhaps a little more expensive. Finally, she relented and called Jenny; the electrician would have to be called in to do it my way, the right way. The right way would be to drill a hole through the wall through the cable outlet box and along the base of the wall out of sight around the corner of the patio and through another hole drilled directly behind where the hard drive will be placed; no up and down and along walls; just three holes drilled through the concrete and filled with silicon to prevent leakage. The cable guys set up the cable and in the living room and internet in the study with enough wire (black wire, they didn’t have white) to facilitate the outside job. They then hooked us up with the wires indoors (they seemed to be ready to leave the wires through two open doors that wouldn’t be able to be closed) until the electrician comes in a day or two to set it up.