Packing Notes #2: The Monitor
After first taking out the hard drive, so it could be near me for awkward access, the computer itself was packed and shipped with all my stuff going to Ireland 10 days or so ago.
And while you need transformers and other technical considerations I thought I’d best bring the monitor also. You know, to keep the computer company.
But they’re not easy to pack. Not when you’ve already used your computer box for important things like your record collection - remember those dark vinyl groovy things?
But luckily on my porch somebody had left a box for a monitor. A perfect fit bar the padding. So what did I use for the padding? This is a Kansas City question. I couldn’t have done it in Ireland. Come on, you know.
That’s right. I used the dozens of tennis balls I’ve been picking up from the streets of Kansas City. Ain’t nothing going to break that screen en route now. That’s a better finish to my time in Kansas City than the ending to Birdy.
And the great thing is that if I should find the box too heavy when I’m unloading it when it arrives in Dublin next month, and I drop it, well it won’t break, it will just bounce.
See Also:
• Talking Temperatures
• Do You Know What They Do In Ireland?
• What Impresses You Most About the United States?
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Hilarious. Do you have plans for the tennis balls in Ireland? Perhaps you could start leaving them about town for others to find - bringing a bit of KC back with you?
It’s strange that packing a monitor reminded me, but what’s the story with dog-dog? I assume there’s a quarantine period. How long though and are you allowed access?
Primal,
I plan to do a full detailed post on the procedure much later but no, no quarantine.
Within Europe there is the Pet Passport scheme introduced to replace quarantine, and the US is one of several countries that although not within the scheme do co-operate with it.
In short you can move a pet if you go through a load of hoops that are certified by vets and labs first. Roughly it’s a form of self-administered quarantine I suppose.
So I had to get a European standard chip (neither of the 2 main American standards are accepted in Europe) into the dog. And then using the chip to identify the dog shots for rabies and other stuff are given. Then after a period of weeks has passed you get a blood test - of which there are different standards - and the lab establishes if the level of anti-bodies is high enough. And then the requisite period must pass to establish that your pet doesn’t have rabies or whatever.
Through all of this is a ton of paperwork and then when you have the all clear you ask the airline to book a ticket, who direct you tot he Irish government for a license to fly the pet, and then you book but you must have some basic treatments like anti flea and tick applied within a 48 to 24 hour window before your departure.
Even then there are temperature limits. The airlines that do transport pets (and your pet must be accompanied) will not do so if the temperature is above x or below y.
Dog-dog can fly from Dec 19 or so, once I get the final paperwork and treatments applied - so I’ll be going back for th pick-up. And I’ll be monitoring the weather at the airports that are hubs - Chicago could very possibly be too cold then so Atlanta or Florida may be my airport of leaving.
As it currently stands the whole process takes 7 months at the quickest. It’s likely in time that the anti-body tests could be removed and the 6 month rabies shot wait could be reduced to 3 months - certainly the advocacy groups that brought in the Pet Passport scheme are pushing for these changes also.
I have some work yet to do - but my dog is in a good place until I go back for the pick-up.
Erin,
I just may do that and see what I start - though I plan to keep a few for the dog who never failed to get excited when I came home late at night in KC with a new tennis ball and threw it into the living room to the dog who was standing in a pile of dozens of balls.