the story of my bookshelves

I finally got around to transporting my bookshelves to the office. This was a Monday night thing that bled over into Tuesday night. This past Sunday, I had intended to take my shelves, but I waited too long: I started lashing the shelves to my hand truck a bit after 11 p.m., and by the time I finished, it was 11:25 p.m.: there was a chance I wouldn't make the last train out toward Daechi Station. So I waited until Monday night and started out a bit after 11 p.m. I had to wait for the 11:35 p.m. train, as it turned out. I also noticed, this time, that the handicap elevators all have yellow signs on them warning not to use these these facilities as freight elevators. Whoops. Well, I guess that's another reason to transport stuff very late in the evening. No one said anything to me.

I'd learned a lot about transporting things on a hand truck from my previous trip. I didn't have proper bungee cords, but I had nylon twine and some cargo straps that I'd gotten from John McCrarey a lifetime ago. This was enough (along with the short bungee cord from my small hand truck) to bolt everything down good and tight. While the shelves did shift a bit as I passed over the rough tiles and sidewalks, there was no danger of anything falling this time. I was able to get on and off the subway with no problem (now that I know where to position myself), and while I still made an infernal racket, like last time, I didn't have to deal with any spilled contents, so I was a lot less winded by the time I reached the Mido building.

Daecheong Station subway platform, waiting for the train. Strapped down enough for ya'?

I made it to the bottom of the back-entrance stairwell and was readying myself to untie everything and take the shelves up one by one when an ajeossi came by and said I couldn't go that way: it was after midnight. He let me into the main part of the building, though, so I could ferry my wares to a different stairwell. It took a million years to untie everything, but I used that time to catch my breath. Even after midnight, there were still students moving up and down the stairs. What kind of classes go until midnight?

At the back-entrance stairwell.

Below is the "after" picture: notice the lack of ropes and straps. I had to untie everything and ferry the shelves and cart up the stairs, one by one, after which I had to stack everything back on the hand truck. So here's the cart, ready to make that final push:

At the top of a different stairwell.

In the last shot below, I'm about to move my shelves into our little corner office. Mission accomplished. It took me a while to remember how to set the shelves up. I think they're how they're supposed to be now. I had my cell phone with me this time; I put it into my pants pocket to make sure it didn't fall out. (Luckily, I never had to bend over to pick up spillage.) Pretty much everything that went wrong last time went right this time. That's my superpower: always getting things right the second time. That's certainly true of my cooking.

final destination

So when I come into the office Tuesday morning (a mere few hours from now), I'll likely spend a couple hours just putting all my shit back on the shelves. I couldn't do that until the shelves got brought in, which means I probably should have brought the shelves in first, followed by the rest of my stuff. Ah, well. Live and learn.