Sometimes I am truly amazed by human stupidity, or rather lack of reasoning. Recently I sold some stuff on Tradera which is a Swedish branch of Ebay. Among the items sold where bookcases in various sizes. Today one of the buyers, or rather the buyers boyfriend, came by to pay for it and pick it up. The bookcase is a standard tall and wide IKEA Billy. It measures 202 cm in height, 80 cm in width and 28 cm in depth. And the guy had rented a compact car!?
I don’t know where to start, or rather I do. The car rental is a about ten times more than the cost of the bookcase. The height of the case matches the length of the interior inside the car when including the drivers seat. He knew the measurements before hand so why the hell rent a compact car? Why not rent a stationwagon? Before he arrived he had picked up some other smaller furniture as well.
Then we get to the part where he attempts to load the bookcase into the car. The rear opening was to small to fit the bookcase in any other way than lying down on it’s back or held diagonally which is what he attempted first. Well it stuck before it reached the passenger seat. His next idea was to put it on top of the head rest of the drivers seat. I promptly told him that was a no go. Can you imagine driving through central Stockholm or on the highway with a bookcase resting on your head.
In the end we managed to get the bookcase two thirds into the car resting against the back of the drivers seat. We then tied the bookcase down with som plastic string. We also used this string to tie the rear hatch down with a bit of cushioning between the bookcase and the hatch. In the end I wonder if his girlfriend is going to ge a bookcase or firewood?
Ooo! That’s precisely the kind of thing I was writing about in my blog! To observer the small things that happen around you every day.
In this case I would be a passerby who would ponder and wonder at the industrious ways of trying to fit a really large thing into a compact car.
Posted by Mika Perälä on November 21st, 2007