What the heck does that mean? Well, when I was in boot camp at Marine Corp Recruit Depot in San Diego that was how we kept track of the number of days we had left until we could wake up on our last morning in boot camp. There you have it then, 31 days until departure, plenty of time to get things done that need to be accomplished, yet no so much time that you would get bored by the waiting. Some folks call this time by another name…………..
The Chaos Zone
Sure enough as we close in on the last month we will be living in Texas several things have to be accomplished at once. Now I would like to tell that because of our numerous moves in the past, we were well trained for the process and that it was taking place with such ease and grace that it appeared as if it was being handled by others. However, it is about a crazy as I could imagine it to be without becoming overwhelming.
Pack, unpack, re-pack.
This is the first of the crazy issues. The moving company told us that we did not need to be obsessive about the household inventory for the move. They said that generalities would be sufficient for the border crossing into Canada. Granted this does not fit with the written account of the rules as given by the Canadian Border Information Service, but heck they had just moved another person to Canada so they should know.
Well maybe. You see, the last person they moved was a Canadian citizen headed home, and we are immigrants and that changes the rules. You see we do need an inventory, not an exhaustive Fillmoresque (see letter for further explaination) inventory worthy of the god Obsessius, but we do need to list the contents of the boxes and value the items in the boxes. Well we had not really done that good a job of describing the contents of the boxes. We had been pretty general- box 32 Kitchen stuff (heavy). What is really needed is a bit more detail- box 32 Pots, pans, skillets, bowls, and towels. To which we add a value for the customs folks so they can determine if we should be paying taxes. The end result is that we are taking the 40+ boxes apart and inventorying the contents and then repacking them. If you have enough cold beer, the process is relatively benign.
Launder your money
Getting money to Canada is proving to be an interesting thing. We certainly have the option of packing cash, but I for one am not in favor of emptying the account into a bank bag and then hauling it across the country, the border, and through hotels of dubious quality. Wiring the money has been suggested as a relatively easy alternative, but a quick look at the western union rates makes me a little reluctant to utilize this method. The option of a personal or a bank check is there, but considering the length of time it took for the Canadian checks to clear our bank, we do not really want to be waiting on this while we need access to our money. So what should we do? Nancy is going to speak with the bank about options, but here are a few we have come up with to date.
Traveler’s Checks
Sure we would spend several hours signing all the checks, but the fees are more reasonable than wire services and the money is relatively safe.
Teller: How may we help you sir?
Gil: I need $10,000 in traveler’s checks please.
Teller: faints dead out on the floor
Debit/ATM card
Believe it or not, this method works very well overseas and has been utilized in Ghana on the last trips. This prevents you from having to use a credit card, and also prevents you from carrying a load of cash. It is easier than a traveler’s check, and just about as safe. The part of the process that we have to confirm is that there are ATM outlets on the island that we can use, and that the fees associated with the card will not be to extravagant.
Bank to Bank wire transfer
This is the last resort of the better ideas. We can wire money from our bank to the new bank if we need to do this. We have put everything into place to make it possible to do this remotely after we have left the area, but it will also have some associated fees, and there is still a little lag time before the funds are clear.
All in all an interesting situation and I will let you know how it turns out.
The Chaos Zone
Sure enough as we close in on the last month we will be living in Texas several things have to be accomplished at once. Now I would like to tell that because of our numerous moves in the past, we were well trained for the process and that it was taking place with such ease and grace that it appeared as if it was being handled by others. However, it is about a crazy as I could imagine it to be without becoming overwhelming.
Pack, unpack, re-pack.
This is the first of the crazy issues. The moving company told us that we did not need to be obsessive about the household inventory for the move. They said that generalities would be sufficient for the border crossing into Canada. Granted this does not fit with the written account of the rules as given by the Canadian Border Information Service, but heck they had just moved another person to Canada so they should know.
Well maybe. You see, the last person they moved was a Canadian citizen headed home, and we are immigrants and that changes the rules. You see we do need an inventory, not an exhaustive Fillmoresque (see letter for further explaination) inventory worthy of the god Obsessius, but we do need to list the contents of the boxes and value the items in the boxes. Well we had not really done that good a job of describing the contents of the boxes. We had been pretty general- box 32 Kitchen stuff (heavy). What is really needed is a bit more detail- box 32 Pots, pans, skillets, bowls, and towels. To which we add a value for the customs folks so they can determine if we should be paying taxes. The end result is that we are taking the 40+ boxes apart and inventorying the contents and then repacking them. If you have enough cold beer, the process is relatively benign.
Launder your money
Getting money to Canada is proving to be an interesting thing. We certainly have the option of packing cash, but I for one am not in favor of emptying the account into a bank bag and then hauling it across the country, the border, and through hotels of dubious quality. Wiring the money has been suggested as a relatively easy alternative, but a quick look at the western union rates makes me a little reluctant to utilize this method. The option of a personal or a bank check is there, but considering the length of time it took for the Canadian checks to clear our bank, we do not really want to be waiting on this while we need access to our money. So what should we do? Nancy is going to speak with the bank about options, but here are a few we have come up with to date.
Traveler’s Checks
Sure we would spend several hours signing all the checks, but the fees are more reasonable than wire services and the money is relatively safe.
Teller: How may we help you sir?
Gil: I need $10,000 in traveler’s checks please.
Teller: faints dead out on the floor
Debit/ATM card
Believe it or not, this method works very well overseas and has been utilized in Ghana on the last trips. This prevents you from having to use a credit card, and also prevents you from carrying a load of cash. It is easier than a traveler’s check, and just about as safe. The part of the process that we have to confirm is that there are ATM outlets on the island that we can use, and that the fees associated with the card will not be to extravagant.
Bank to Bank wire transfer
This is the last resort of the better ideas. We can wire money from our bank to the new bank if we need to do this. We have put everything into place to make it possible to do this remotely after we have left the area, but it will also have some associated fees, and there is still a little lag time before the funds are clear.
All in all an interesting situation and I will let you know how it turns out.
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