So we were heading to a wedding reception last saturday night after leaving the church.  We got on a two lane divided highway where the speed limit is 50m.p.h. i believe.  Fo those that know the road Rte 1A in Revere, Mass. was where we were driving.  I was speeding along and we came to a red light.  There were several cars in front of us in this two lane road.  When i looked up i noticed this little dog no more than fifteen pounds walking toward my car.  He was about four cars ahead when he seemed to just stop.  Being so small i am sure the cars right next to him did not even know he was there.  I feared for his life and thought i should help somehow. Having had a dog growing up i know how much they can mean to a family. In my work at a Boston moving company we are often asked to help with transporting the family pets and many times the family is more concerned about the pet than themselves in the relocation process. The light was certainly about to turn any minute.  I jumped out of my car and proceeded cautiosly toward as i did not want to scare him.  I should say scare him more as i could see him shaking.  He did not move and i was able to scoop him up.  He was a very cute guy all white with a small bandana around his neck.  He had no dog tags to help identify his owner.  By the way the light turned green right as my hands were on him and the cars started to move.  I brought him to the side of the road and held him tight.  My wife (Illona) took the car out of park and drove to the parking lot of the Northgate mall where we connected.  Okay so we have this dog and we are on our way to the wedding reception.  What do we do know?  No sign of the dog owners as i stood on the side of the road holding him and hoping someone would come for him. Just then i noticed this car approaching and thought oh good here come the owners. I heard “Jim, is everything okay?”. It was Karen and her husband works at the Boston moving company with me. I guess it was a god question see when do you see a guy in a suit holding a dog on the side of a highway.  Illona called the Revere police and we were told the animal control is only monday to friday due to budget cuts.  Illona stayed on the line with the police and i will say they were trying to help us with suggestions as to what to do with the dog such as animal hospitals.  A few minutes later the police dispatcher said they would have a car come by.  Mark, a Revere police officer, showed up and immediately helped reduce our stress level about what was going to happen to the dog.  He said he would personally take the dog and care for it until the owner hopefully called into the police to report the dog missing.  I gave Mark my name and number and asked him to keep me in the loop.  When i handed him the dog he did not want to leave my arms as i think he finally felt safe.  I watched as my new friend drove away on the officers lap in the police cruiser.  I thought what would we have done without Mark helping us.  We could now head to the wedding reception as we realized he was in good hands.  Later that evening Mark called me to let me know the family did call the police station and were reunited with the dog.  Thanks to Mark for going above and beyond in helping the family get their dog back home safely.

I come from a family of people who love to travel, move around, enjoy the nuances and cultural differences found in a new place.  My brother (22) got back this week from a 3 month stint of living in Cairo, Egypt, where he studied Arabic, traveled and absorbed the culture.  He traveled all the way south to Aswan, and then further south to Abu Simbel on the Sudanese border (by caravan).  And he went all the way west to Siwa as well, a remote (and maybe primitive?) area where women are never seen in public.  In addition to this he has lived and taught in France on a few occasions, studied in Malta and traveled throughout most of western Europe and some of Africa.  He has plans to take off on his next adventure in September: teaching English in Martinique.

My parents returned the same day as my brother from a 10 day visit out to see him, where they explored the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, many tombs, mosques, temples, camels and a lot of sand.  Over the years they have travelled all of the United States, lived in Seattle and Kansas and made a couple stops in western Europe.

My other brother (24) is finally settled in Jackson Wyoming after 3 years of short term stays and traveling from Arizona to Montana, Utah to Oregon (and back and forth and back and forth).  Every other time I try to call him, I find he is off on some trek in the Grand Tetons or is out exploring some other beautiful mountain, cave or valley!

My sister (22) is probably the closest to a homebody out of all of us, and she has been to Europe on 2 or 3 occasions and is now in college, which we all know is transient because of the moving in and out of dorms, back and forth to home for breaks and long weekends.

I’ve always been a traveler.  At 13 I visited a family friend for 3 weeks in France.  My Sophomore year in college I studied abroad in Leeds, England and after graduation, I headed over to London for a while to live and work.  Throughout that time, I visited most of the countries in western Europe by train and on foot, and explored as much culture as I could get my hands on!  I fell in love with cities all over the world.

But of course traveling isn’t all bliss and happiness.  Traveling can be stressful!  When my mom came to visit me abroad, her luggage was lost on the way, leaving her with only a spare pair of undies and PJ pants.  My brother’s girlfriend traveled with him to Siwa, where she was gawked at and judged by every passerby.  Moving in and out of college dorms is always stressful and time consuming…and we all know that the air conditioner is usually broken!

When I moved to Boston to take the job with Humboldt, I packed every single possession I had into a small Audi A4 the night before I started work, finally arriving at my destination at 11 pm, and then unpacking the car.  Talk about stressful.  But at least I had some control.  I think about the stress I felt, moving my measly collection of hand-me-downs 200 miles.  I can only imagine how a family would feel, not only moving their possessions, but their children, to a whole new place much further away!  It certainly gives me a lot more respect for their circumstances.

As a Boston moving company, we come in contact with different people, with different lifestyles and different cultural needs every day.  We help college students in and out of dorms and away from their parents for the first time, we help business men and women move internationally for new career opportunities, we help families in financial need downsize, we help executives move into their new and improved mansions…whatever it is, their life is changing, and change (both good and bad) always comes with stress.

For me, traveling has helped me maintain a healthy perspective on change and on hardship.  Having your bag lost on your trip to London is no big deal in the grand scheme of things because I can pop over to the local store and buy a 3 pack of undies for $10, no problem (or 3 pairs at $10 each, depending on your preference).  In the grand scheme, that is nothing, but at the time, it is EARTHSHATTERING and HORRIBLE!  And having that experience, and coming out to the other size unscathed (duh), makes it so much easier to see how people can get so absorbed in their circumstances. 

So to those of you who are stressing about an upcoming move, keep in mind that Humboldt Storage & Moving and all of us travelers and homebodies (and everything in between) are here for you in your time of need.  We understand that change is stressful and we are here to help. 

Today Humboldt begins Vlogging…

Join Barry Pomerleau, in charge of Quality Control at our Boston moving company for some useful tips when packing up your home. ,

          Stress is a key contributor to moving.  Recently I have just purchased a house and the amount of stress that I went through was enormous.  The purchase I made was through a “short sale” which certainly added to the stress.  We sat at the table to sign papers and were not even sure if all the money had been resolved.  That final day was sending me through the wall.  We finally got all of the last minute issues resolved and signed paperwork.  Three long months of waiting and wondering had finally paid off.  We were now home owners and looking forward to the challenges that followed. 

Now it was time to get to the painting and cleaning.  We began by priming the master bedroom, and by the time we completed the painting we had decided that we would complete the paint job there and just was the other bedroom was and leave the paint color.  This task had worn me out so we are going to turn to the professionals to paint the living room and dining areas.  On top of all of these stressful situations I can only imagine having to worry about a moving company handling my precious belongings.  In two ways I am lucky, first as an employee at Humboldt Storage and Moving I have about 15 first class movers whom have volunteered to assist with my move.  These men would take all the stress out of moving because I know there skills and abilities.  The second reason I am lucky is the I do not have a lot of goods that need to be moved, and the moving process should only last about 1 hour.  At Humboldt we want to service all of our customers in a stress free manner because we know that entire relocation process is very stressful, as a first time home I now have a higher respect for the term “relax and get moving.”