The Move to New Hampshire

Hello there,
I know the site hasn’t been updated in a while, and for good reason. Let me tell you about what I’ve been up to. You can tell me what you’ve been up to but talking to the computer monitor doesn’t work and I wasn’t probably going to listen to you anyways. I apologize in advance of the length of this, I’ve got a lot of things to catch you up on and, more importantly, I’ve got a lot of things to rant about and I’ve told the story of the move far too many times!

A teacher without a job
In case you have not heard, I have some big news–I no longer live in Texas! In August I resigned my teaching position in the Plano Independent School District so that my wife Charlotte and I could move to New Hampshire. Prior to the move, I had started applying to school districts in New Hampshire and nearby Massachusetts to secure a teaching position. Once Charlotte and I decided on which city we would live in, I made sure to apply to as many school districts in the area that I could. In the end I had applied to about 50 school districts within a 2 hour radius of where we live. As the start of the school year approached, a sad reality set in.

Even though so many schools had been contacted, so many cover letters, resumes, and references sent out, I knew that I was not going to find a teaching position. In all of my searching for a position, I had only found a couple of teaching positions that were open for anything from first to eighth grade. Only two regular classroom teaching positions in 50 districts!

Once the school year started and I didn’t hear anything I applied to substitute teach in the local district. I even applied to a temp. agency and some technology positions that I found. Weeks went by without an e-mail, phone call, or letter. It’s hard to believe that a hard-working guy with a college degree couldn’t get a well-paying job with benefits. I’m not even talking about teaching; I’m just talking about a job that would pay well for someone with a college degree. The stress of finding a job was aggravated by not having the health insurance we had while I was teaching. Being without insurance is scary because you worry about getting sick and the possibility that sooner or later you’re going to need the coverage.

I had been holding out for a career but the reality is it was time for a job. I applied for jobs that people sometimes look down upon: retail jobs at places like McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and Best Buy. I don’t look down on these places; I’m a customer at each establishment! I needed a job anyway so knew that no matter where I worked, I would work hard for them. Getting a job after searching all summer was a relief after some especially disheartening news while I was unemployed: Charlotte’s boss in Texas, who she continues to working for, even after the move, cut her hours in half. I am lucky to say that I found not one job but several. I am now substitute teaching and was working at McDonald’s on the side. After working there for two weeks I heard from Best Buy and now work there instead. I still technically work for McDonald’s (as someone they can call in if I’m not working somewhere else) but haven’t heard from them in about a month. So I’m not a teacher but I am a substitute, which is close. All my coworkers and former students know that finding a teaching position continues to remain my top priority and all is not lost–there’s always next year. Those of you who know me really well know that teaching wasn’t going to be a long term career either; I intend on getting involved in politics one day. Working for the American people is something I find very noble.

The headaches of moving
Finding a job hasn’t been my only headache. The move up to New Hampshire from Texas took 4 days and, though the move is complete, I continue to deal with on going problems with our movers. First, let me tell you that in the moving industry who you hire isn’t necessarily who does your move. I knew that but this poses a problem I’ll describe shortly. Most moving companies actually do not do the move; they subcontract it out to another carrier.

On the day of my move our carrier arrived about 2 and a half hours late, and the problems started there. I had done a preliminary inventory before signing my contract with the moving company to get a rate quote and called the moving company and the carrier company a day or two before the move to give them the true inventory but neither company was worried about the increased number of boxes and other items. Both companies did not want to hear the final inventory count, no matter how much I insisted that the numbers changed a great deal from the initial list. On moving day I was lucky because the carrier arrived with a suitable sized truck for the move, something I was worried about. Besides being late, the carrier arrived with only one dolly to move everything! I had to drive one of the employees to Home Depot to buy another dolly! I had to leave my apartment open and alone with 2 movers I didn’t know and around all of the unboxed items that I would drive over to the new apartment myself.

After they left my worries about not watching these items was realized because my digital camera was missing! This was a camera I had just received over Christmas and had taken such great care of. I called the carrier and to this day have not been called back. When the furniture arrived in New Hampshire it was four days after the last contracted moving date. It took a couple of weeks to put everything in its place and we made a list of things that were broken or missing.

The carrier company has been hard to reach. I had tried many phone calls to try to locate my digital camera and to file a claim on the missing and damaged items but never got calls back. It wasn’t until I filed a Better Business Bureau complaint with the initial moving company that I started getting calls back. Imagine that! I filed the complaint against the moving company and not the subcontracted carrier because my contact was with them and not who they threw the job to. The moving company also failed to help resolve my problems when I had contacted them after never receiving assistance from the carrier company. Currently, I still haven’t received the late delivery discount I was promised and any sort of compensation for the missing or damaged items. I never seriously thought I would get any compensation in the first place, movers having the reputation they do, but I definitely wanted to pursue my complaint. What irked me was that I suspect the moving company continues to maintain a perfect record with the Better Business Bureau because they don’t do the moves so they are free from the complaints and problems associated with it! They take 20% of the moving price, subcontract the job out, and leave you to deal with the carrier.

One final headache of moving is that bills have been arriving to our New Hampshire apartment late, even though I’ve updated the address on file with each company several times. The companies simply don’t update the address so the mail has to be forwarded after it arrives at our old home in Plano. From there I have to call in and then have the late fees removed each time because of their error.

Hopefully I will have some good news to relay to everyone soon on the problems with the movers.

Finally some good news
On an upside to all of these problems, the fall foliage looked great here in New Hampshire. I’ve been told that this season was still not as bright as years past because of so much rain we’ve received this fall. Soon winter will arrive and I’m sure the view of a country side covered in snow will be amazing. My in-laws on Long Island have been joking that the snow will be 10 feet high each day but I know better. As a guy who grew up in the deserts of West Texas, any snow will be lots of snow. I just hope I don’t have to dig the car out each day for months just so I can get to work! Finally, I wanted to share a few drawings some first graders recently gave me when I substituted.

Click thumbnails for larger version.

I apologize for the lack of news or site updates recently, I’ve been really busy with working two jobs (Best Buy and substituting). If you haven’t done it yet, visit the News and Updates page for all of the latest site updates, SlyTheFox.com now has some great features I hope you’ll take advantage of, including subscribing to newsletters and adding RSS news feeds to your favorite customized page at Yahoo, for example! Thank you for visiting my website.

Sincerely,

Lorenzo Arredondo Jr.

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Posted in News, The Teacher Years
Keywords: Best Buy, McDonald's, Moving, New Hampshire, Plano TX, Rochester NH, Substituting, Teaching, Texas, The Teacher Years