The Renfrow Story

I woke up this morning filled with joyful anticipation of book delivery day. The weather last week delayed delivery which had really bummed me out. Since last Tuesday we’ve had 20 or so inches of snow and multiple days of blizzard conditions and dangerous wind chills. All of which pretty much made going anywhere further than a few blocks impossible. Today was going to be bitterly cold, but the sun was shining and the main roads were now clear. i was ready to bundle up and meet the truck that was bringing me this treasure pallet of books. It was going to be a good day. It was going to be an incredibly meaningful and memorable MLK Day. I was beyond excited.

And then around 8:30am I got an email from the shipping company. No book delivery today. The hydraulic lift needed to lower the books from the truck down to the ground won’t work when it’s this cold. Sorry but we don’t know when we’ll be able to get them to you. It will probably be next week.

Well…. shoot. (You are correct in guessing I didn’t say shoot. I am writing shoot. But shoot is not what I said or texted when I communicated this to my husband and Chris, our kind friend who was going to help us today.)

I was not going to give up. This was the day these books would come to Grinnell. I could feel that this was the day. I looked out the window at the sun shining on all that snow. Sure, it was stupid cold, but the sun was shining. There was no wind. And the road condition website said the Interstate was in good shape, i.e. no longer covered by snow but still be careful of the stupid cold. The books were an hour away sitting in a warehouse. Could we go get them? The shipping notice said it was 760 lbs of books. Based on the packaging of the advance copies I new there would be 34 books per box, so about 60 boxes. Would that fit in the back of our Ford Explorer? It would be close. Maybe we could take both of our cars just in case it didn’t all fit. My husband, Craig, and I both had the afternoon set aside for book delivery. A quick call with him to check my sanity (he’s so good to me) and we had a plan. I’d work until 1pm and then we’d hit the road.

Two cars filled with gas. Two drivers wearing extra layers to guard us against the cold for the loading part of the journey. Extra winter layers packed just in case. Craig in the Explorer. Me in the Mazda. Maybe it felt a little safer having two cars, just in case something happened.

Why did I let that thought cross my mind? Sure enough, we got on the Interstate and the Mazda started to shimmy when got up to around 60 mph. What is going on? Something definitely doesn’t feel right. Craig says the Explorer has a little shimmy to it as well. Maybe it’s the cold? We pull off at the next exit and trade cars behind Iowa’s Best Burger Cafe. He drives the Mazda. And a few miles down the road he pulls into the Newton exit and we decide it’s not worth the risk. We’ll park it and pick it up on the way back. If the books don’t all fit in the Explorer we’ll…. well, we’ll figure that out if we have to.

While he drives I research what might make cars develop tire-out-of-balance type behavior in cold weather. Since both our cars were out in the cold, sitting in the snow, they both likely have some ice frozen solid somewhere in one of the wheel parts – hence, making it behave as if a tire is very off balance. We’re going to assume that’s what it is and not worry for now. [It’s great that we have lots of garage space for Craig’s work from home shop, but there would be advantages to actually being able to park the cars inside sometimes.]

We pulled into the UPS/TForce Freight warehouse at right around 3pm. Their dispatcher had told me to drive through the gate and look for the ramp, park at the bottom, and ring the bell at the door next to the ramp. They’d have our pallet ready to bring down to the parking lot. Sure enough, it was just that easy. And now I can say I’ve picked up a freight delivery from the warehouse. The forklift driver was super nice and very strong and helped us load the boxes into the car. We put our Tetris packing skills to use and were able to get everything in the one load. It’s possible we would have been able to squeeze in one more box. But any more than that might have had to ride on my lap! It was about 15 minutes from the time we saw the pallet to when we were pulling out with our load – and with great big smiles!

In Newton we loaded the boxes that would need to go into the house and to the college into the car. That would make it easier once we got home, which it did. The extra weight also seemed to help the car ride a bit better. Pretty sure it’s ice. We were home enjoying a celebratory adult beverage before 5pm. I’ve got 6 boxes inside the house ready to prep for distribution to Kickstarter backers. All of the boxes that go to the college bookstore are in the car for me to take to them tomorrow. (If you preordered a copy from them they will be getting it to you soon!) The rest have been unloaded into Craig’s shop where they will wait until they are distributed to libraries (500 copies to donate to libraries thanks to Kickstarter backers) or bookstores, Pioneer Bookstore in Grinnell and hopefully some indie stores in Chicago in the near future.

So I was right. It was a really good day. It was an incredibly meaningful MLK Day. The books are all in Grinnell and ready to share with the many people who I know are anxiously awaiting this arrival. It was definitely a day to remember!