The Shipping News

So while I'm sitting here trying to feel better (less coughing today but more chest discomfort--does that make any sense?), I'm trying to get some things done--mostly phone calls and paperwork.  But once again it is proving only how naive I am about things.

We have a small shipment of stuff that we want to send to the girls, who are in 2 cities in Canada.  We have this stuff because when we left Canada, both girls were in school and had no place to store things, whereas we were going into a house and had a whole basement for junk.  Then when we went to India, we just dumped it all into storage along with our stuff.  Now that both girls have houses and JLO is having a baby, it's time.

There isn't very much--and that's the problem.  There are only 4 pieces of real furniture; the rest is boxes of one sort or another.  But in those boxes are things like my mother's china, the husband's grandmother's china (one set for each girl), some artwork--things that I don't just want to pack up myself and send by FedEx (nothing against them--but I have seen the way my UPS guy throws things around his truck; would FedEx be any better?).  I could send all the toys and baby clothes and such by FedEx, but then the smaller I make the 'real' stuff, the more of a dilemma it becomes.

Moving companies seem to have a minimum weight that you are charged regardless of what you're sending--even if they can stick it on a load already going where you need your things to go.  And then another company talked about a mileage charge on top of that.  So it's looking like SEVERAL thousand dollars to get this stuff to where it belongs.  And while I want it out of here, and some if it needs to be in Canada for sure, that's an awfully big expense for something that seems so simple. 

As I said, I'm naive. 

I don't mind paying a fair rate for services rendered, but it seems to me there has to be a better way to get this done...