The demise of our HDTV

It was Christmas in October today. We received 17 boxes by US Postal Service, which means we're close to receiving all our boxes. It is true that one box is totally missing, one only had two books in it when it arrived, and another had half my books and half someone else's books (I guess my box and their box broke open at the same time, they scooped up some contents and divided them between the two), but all in all we have been impressed by the USPS. Everyone who has moved overseas by container has stories about the nightmarish condition of their things when they arrived, so we thought we'd try moving by US mail.

Two of the boxes were our technology boxes and included our desktop computer, our printer, our DVD player, and our HDTV. There were some loose things jingling around in the computer, so I opened it up and they were just two plastic clips. I plugged it in and it started up just fine, but I'm not certain it is working as I don't have a monitor to which to hook it (see demise of HDTV). The printer works great, although the DVD that was packed on top of it is totally mushed. I can deal with all that.


The box containing the HDTV was opened and the toilet paper rolls packed around it had been mushed. But I was hopeful as they obviously took the impact and the box looked unsquashed and intact. We unbubble-wrapped the TV and it looked wonderful. Hooray - my big TV! In it was plugged and alas, a beautiful contemporary design appeared in place of a television program. The screen itself was unscratched, but the glass behind it (it is an LCD) was shattered. So, not only did I lose my HDTV but my computer monitor.

Luckily (silver lining), we have found the Slingbox and computers to work very, very well and we are not missing our television shows and ballgames. They were insured, so now we just have to put together all the necessary supporting documents. We'll see what happens . . .