11.17.2016

wtf's in the truck


The saga begins.
 I blame myself. But I also blame my daughter and son-in-law. I have a tub. A nice round tub. From China. But the Jacuzzi jets don't work because the touchpad doesn't work. I have  new set of electricals for it, but it has to be unplumbed and turned upside down to get at the electricals. Also to get at the faucets. Which, my son-in-law told me, were loose and needed to be tightened. He suggested cutting a hole in the side to get at them. I decided to get a new tub that would be easier to repair and have no jets to malfunction. Rental house.
But then my daughter posted a picture of the old tub on social media and there was an outpouring of yearning. So I thought, OK, another round tub. On line the only round tubs I could find were from China. Seemed cheap too. And after all, my other tub had come from China. Free shipping right to my door on Block Island.
Enter Danilo.

I did not realize at first that due to the fact that my original tub was already sitting in a California warehouse my second experience would be quite different. That I would become (pre Trump!) an importer of goods from China and would wind up paying more than double the quite modest cost of the Love Bath itself in fees and duties. Not to mention that I would have to fetch the thing from customs in Boston. The timing sucked—houseguests in New York and Thanksgiving next week and a $60-a-day fee to leave it in the Boston warehouse. So as soon as I got clearance and paid up via wire, I drove through the pouring rain praying that I would find someone to help me load the thing sideways in a too small truck. The kid from Montego Bay said I needed to get another truck. I begged. He got his boss. I begged some more. I signed my life away in case of breakage, and  they figured it out. Maybe because it was prominently labelled "Love Bath." And then the kid from Montego Bay loaded it and helped me strap it down. In the pouring rain. I was going to drive to my daughter's in Providence and let her see what she had wrought, but they all had the flu, so I went to my sister's instead. Driving very carefully.


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