My Move to California, or, How Adventure Can Be Used As a Synonym for Nightmare: Part 3

[fandoria]

I wish I could say that after Part 1 and Part 2 of my move to California, that settling into our new life went smoothly.  Alas, there were a few more "adventures" waiting for us.

Our First Day, or, Visa is Full of Fail
We slept most of our first morning away due to extreme exhaustion and severe jetlag.  For breakfast, we snacked on some of the fruit

Comments

[olmue]

Yeah, I hate to say it, but the utilities company promising to have everything on the day you move in (even if you call WEEKS in advance to set it up) rarely actually happens. Ditto when you warn the Visa company and put a note in there that you will be traveling/moving. And cars and California...well. You know! And if you buy a car in California and move somewhere else, your mechanic will scratch his head at the funny California parts inside.

Sounds like you got an excellent landlord, though! That has got to help a lot. Having a bad landlord on top of everything else would be a nightmare!!

[fandoria]

In the case of the hot water tank, the utility company was blameless. The problem was the tank was ancient.

I've also heard that if you buy a car in California and then move away, no matter how long ago you bought the car, they charge you a huge fee to take the car out of state. Even if it's not true, they certainly have weird laws and stuff out here.

We are definitely blessed to have good landlords. The last time we rented, our landlady was horrid. I was really nervous about our current ones because our first interaction with them was actually with the hot water tank. Everything else had been done through our realtor. So it was very reassuring to learn they appear to be reasonable people.

[olmue]

We didn't have to pay any fees to take our California-bought car out of state. That was a while back, but all we did was license it when we bought it, and then drive it out. (We did get a happy surprise when we discovered that Illinois insurance was half what we'd paid in California, though!)

[fandoria]

I was told it's a relatively new law, but I'm hoping it's just as false as the time we were told if we didn't call and get a hold of the gypsy moth people from the department of agriculture within 24 hours of our stuff getting here, we'd be fined $7,000.

I'm noticing that insurance is roughly equivalent to what we paid in NY, so that makes it easier to budget for.

[rosefiend]

Wow, wow, wow! I hope it gets better for you!

I've cut way the hell back on using credit cards -- use cash for everything but major purchaes. Those guys are evil anyway, but you know that!!!

[fandoria]

Things are finally starting to settle down. And amid all the crises, we did have some really great moments. That'll be my next post. :)

We only have one credit card and it's tied to our checking account. Neither of us like carrying all the cash that'd be required for our monthly purchases, so we use the card instead. Except for the times when Visa's fraud protection works against us, it's been a good system for us for the past ten years. It's only been since the fraud protection got ridiculous that we've had problems. We're hoping we won't have those problems if we're able to find a bank that doesn't use Visa for the credit/debit card.

[onegrapeshy]

I think you are ready for a vacation... :-)

[fandoria]

I think so too! Fortunately, we have been able to spend a couple of weekends at the beach already.

[ext_294131]

Sounds like you've had a crazy, crazy time! I'm hoping that things are getting settled down! (It makes me glad we have 3 different credit cards in addition to our visa check card... the only time they've had problems was when my wallet WAS STOLEN and it was being use fraudulently - BTW who spends over $200 at a gas station!?!)

Hopefully you've had your share of adventures! I also hope Chriss gets paid for all the overtime he's working (ie. not salaried.) That makes things better when you see the money from the absentness... (Daniel works a lot of overtime with his job but he's hourly so I don't complain as much!)

[fandoria]

Things are finally settling down. There are still a few off days (like today where my internet has been spotty and horribly slow while trying to pay bills and also my insurance company making life difficult), but for the most part, it's getting better.

Unfortunately, Chriss is salaried. So all that overtime is free labor for his company. Which makes it all the worse. :P It hasn't been quite as bad the last two weeks, but it'd still be nice to have him home before 7. Of course, part of that is the traffic. :P

[edgyauthor]

Wow, ugh, so much stress! No wonder you don't want to deal with Visa anymore. It seems like everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and then some. At least things are finally settling down for you!

[fandoria]

Ugh. I think I spoke too soon about everything settling down. :P Now my insurance company is making us jump through all sorts of hoops before we can reorder more sensors for T. Since this is our first order through this insurance company they want all sorts of data and stuff so they can decide if it's medically necessary and whether they're going to cover it or not. *sigh* Insurance companies and diabetes suck.