The Great Move of 2008
I should write a book. I really should. Things happen to me... and it's like a sitcom. I'm waiting for Ashton to jump out and yell, "You've been PUNK'D!!!". Ok, Ashton, give it up. I've called your bluff.
This is a magnanimous post, so be forewarned...
The Great Move of 2008 began in March when I found out I was coming to Manhattan, Kansas... home of Kansas State University (Go Wildcats!)... to start a residency in Equine Internal Medicine. In April, mom, dad, and I headed up to Manhattan to look for houses. It's not the easiest place to get to - 2 hrs away from the nearest large airport, and no direct flights to that airport (that I could find). Found a flight for mom and dad that went through Minneapolis and one for me that went through Atlanta. No wonder the flight prices are so high - half the time you have to go north to get south, or west to get east. Doesn't make any sense at all!!!
Found the house that I wanted - only took 12 tries. Most of the places are cookie-cutter - the layout was flipped, the tub was jacuzzi, first thing you saw was the kitchen when you walked in the door. None but the one I ended up with had a fireplace. And none had a basement (don't all Tornado-alley houses come with basements??) I do have a crawl space. But you literally have to crawl into it, and it has a dirt floor. No thanks.
The preparations were underway to get things packed up and ready to move. I decided that, since I had so many animals to worry about transporting, I'd leave the "stuff" moving to the professionals. I'd also have them move the Edge, #1 because it can't take the mileage since it's a lease, and #2, I didn't want to stress about trailering something for the first time with umpteen million animals in my van. So, I contracted with a moving company that offered both services. They, of course, contract those things out to other companies, but dealing with one person was good. I emailed back and forth and she was very nice in answering questions for me - how do I ship this, will this be disassembled, how do I pack that?
Moving Day came. And Moving Day went. No movers. They had called the day before, asking if they could come in an hour. I'm like - um... heck no! I wasn't ready! I packed until 6:45 am, Monday morning. I almost... ALMOST... wrote my name and address on every one of my boxes. But I was too tired to even think straight. So I went to bed for a couple of hours. I waited... and called.... and waited more. They said that they'd be there Tuesday after 5 pm. I said - well, that's perfect, I have an appt at 3:30 - I'll be home by then for sure. So, 5 pm came and went. They called again - "we'll be there between 6-8 pm." Ok, I said. We're still good. 6 pm comes - another call. "We're just leaving Miami!" That's 5 hours away. FIVE HOURS - minimum. Ok... I said. I dragged my TV from out in the garage and set things back up so I could watch the NCIS finale. Guess there had to be some good in it.
Midnight - the movers come. I was a bit wary about some strange guys coming to the house at midnight, me holding a cashier's check for their money, and all this... stuff. But they were very, very nice. Ty was from Isreal and Elvis... well, I'm not sure where Elvis was from. We joked, I helped. They said they'd hire me. I kept offering to take things apart - Elvis laughed at me, saying "ooh... someone's got a new toolbox they want to try out!" Thank goodness I did though, otherwise we'd have been there till 8 am. As it was, we finished at 5 am.
Of course, they negotiated money - I had originally chosen the "per pound" route... but Ty said I'd get a better rate going "per cu ft". And honestly, there wasn't a cubic inch to be fit into the space where Ty had loaded stuff. But I'm sure I got duped on it. Just couldn't think straight at 5 am after 3 days of being up and 2 hrs sleep. And I had planned on looking up whether movers are tipped... Ty kinda hinted at it, so I gave them $50.00. Was able to look up online, some people do, some don't - so at least I know it wasn't outrageous or a lowball tip either. I hate figuring out when/how much to tip!!!
Off the stuff went - most likely to Miami, to be loaded onto an 18 wheeler, Ty said, in order to make it's way north.
That was Wednesday morning (the 22nd of May). I was scheduled to head home to Boca that night so I could go on the Bimini trip for Memorial Day. Got lots of stuff done and then headed home. Wasn't the brightest idea to be driving on so little sleep... but I wanted to get there and be able to sleep in. Lots of stops, lots of coffee and Diet Coke - and I made it home.
We didn't end up going to Bimini after all - the seas were too high to guarantee a ride back on Monday - and no flights could be had. So we went to Sailfish Marina in West Palm Beach instead. It's a nice marina and its right next to Peanut Island, party central for WPB on Memorial Day.
Walking on Peanut Island. Ted Kennedy's Bunker is on the island. Didn't tour it though.
Grandpapa and Kayla on the dink:
Disco dancing:
Lynnly and Kaitlyn:
Jack in the marina - literally about 3-4 feet in length:
Tris da meanie - looking all studly and cool:
One of the many raft-ups:
Yeah - TOTALLY not safe!!!!
We came home on Monday and I immediately packed up and headed back to Ocala - well... not "immediately" - I waited until about 8 pm. Then I stopped at Mike's house so he could see Buddy one last time before we head to the Flint Hills. Got home around 1:30 am and still had a ton of stuff to do. It's truly amazing - I thought I had gone through every drawer, every cabinet - and yet, I still kept finding things I'd left!!!
Loree arrived at 12:50 in Tampa - picked her up and then headed straight back to Ocala. Poor thing - she's always helping me clean the house before I move out!!! But we got things done and even found time for a little dinner at Chili's. Got to bed at midnight and were up at 7 am to start the craziness. I still had a little running around to do and of course my back decided to go out after getting up from the air mattress. So a stop at the chiropractor was needed. I came home and then we loaded up the van. Loree brought everything out to me and I packed it - she just kept bringing stuff out - I said STOP!!! =) She just can't take anymore, Cap'n!! But we managed to get it all in, bungee cords and all.
Buddy, making sure he doesn't get left behind!!!
Bungee cords, holding the cages to my seat so they don't go flying!
4 dogs (Loree's too), 4 cats, 3 birds, and a fish tank!!!
Orion has a "birds-eye-view"!!
Finally settled down after 23 hours...
Everyone did pretty well with the trip - Racer kept wanting to come up front - as did Abbie. Bees was fine in the back. Logan held his spot in the litterbox and crate for the duration... well, until we decided to stop and get some sleep - then he came out and was loving on all of us. The dogs played leap-frog, changing positions at every rest stop. Birds wouldn't shut up - Madhura found her voice that she'd lost at home being next to Pinocchio - so she tried that out for a few hours. Yay fun. Orion could have cared less - he had his bell, and he was fine with that! I can't remember where we stopped to sleep - we tried twice - once at around 11:30 pm - no luck - we had just taken a shot of 5-hr energy (didn't really help to keep us awake while on the road, but try to sleep? Hell no!) and then again at... 7 am? Got about 20 minutes then.
We got through Florida pretty quickly - Georgia... uggh - we HATE Georgia. Mostly because it looked like Florida and it took so damn long to get through it, and mostly for another reason I won't go into. Tennessee - now we LOVED Tennessee. It was beautiful!!! Glad we did that during the day! We went through a small part of Kentucky, then Illinois, and then all the way across Missouri (Misery)... and then 2 hrs to Manhattan - YAY!!!
Here's our trip:
We got to the house around 1:30 pm (Central time). Only took us 27 hours. LOL! Holy crap - we're never doing that again!!!
All was well in the house and the realtor is just so full of awesome - she left us paper plates, napkins, plastic forks/knives/spoons, paper towels, a case of water, fruit, muffins and danishes from Panera, and a beautiful plate!!! She's just a goddess. We set up our air mattresses, got all the kids settled, and then went to sleep. We decided to set our alarm for 7 - figured if we felt good enough to get up, we would - and we would go to dinner. I took Loree to Whiskey Creek, my new favorite restaurant - the one with S'mores for dessert!!! We came back and crashed again. We had another busy day scheduled for Friday - Loree was supposed to leave from Kansas City at 5:25 pm and we wanted to hit Sunset Zoo, Topeka Zoo, and the Bodies Revealed exhibit all before that! We're suckers for punishment!!! The Bodies Revealed exhibit was ok. It was the one with Asian people. I guess since I've spent a million hours dissecting out nerves, tendons, muscles, and organs on animals, that the anatomy didn't really impress me. I was impressed with the preservation and the way they showed the blood vessels. But I guess I was a little surprised at how little there was for a $25.00 ticket. I dropped Loree off and made sure she was able to get on the flight (we were only an hour before take-off, so I wanted to make sure she got through security). She did and I headed home. This was Friday, the 30th of May.
Kelly and "The Frog", aka La Grenouille (ala NCIS!)
Tippy, on her bed.
Buddy has commandeered the air mattress all for himself!
May 31st was the date verbally agreed upon for the delivery of my stuff. May 29th was the date on the contract. No word. Waited... figured, maybe they don't work Saturdays and Sundays (no answer, only answering machine when called)? Called on Monday... they said they are working on it - there's a 2-4 day window... I was ok with that. Well... Thursday, I started getting really angry. I kept calling the moving company that actually moved my items - the guy, Tyler, kept telling me he'd have the driver call me. They never did. I kept calling and he'd give me the same rigamorale. Thursday, I called several times and finally Tyler just turned the phone off. I left two messages - one quite nasty, one pleading - All I want to know is WHERE my stuff is. Is it in Alaska? Is it still stuck in Florida? I just want to know. Meanwhile, I was calling the original company I contracted with - got their voicemail - which just said "Welcome to the voicemail of Box 201, please leave a message". A little suspicious. Finally, I got an email back from Roxie, the person I had originally been talking to. She said she had been out sick and she will work on it. She'll get back to me by Tuesday. Hah. I had called the Consumer Affairs Hotline and they said that everyone is experiencing delays. Said I could file an "inconvenience/delay" complaint with the company, but that I'd have to get the form from the company. Haha. Well, they aren't even answering their phones. I can also type out something and send it to them, via certified mail. They then have 30 days to respond. Well, typing out something and printing it requires a PRINTER!!! Which... is in the Edge.
The Edge. My lovely Edge. I love that car - but kinda hate it right now. Remember that I contracted with this company to move the Edge up here? Worry-free, they'd pick it up and deliver it to my door. DOOR-TO-DOOR service, they offer. Well, the car was supposed to be picked up on the 27th of May. You can all see where this is going. Yep - they didn't pick it up. So I parked it in the garage of the house I was renting, left the keys in it, locked it and had to leave. My pet-sitter, god love her, said she would supervise the pickup. So, many calls later, the car still hadn't been picked up by Monday. I called and they said, oh, we'll pick it up today, I mean, tomorrow. But they're having a problem with Manhattan. Can we drop it off in Kansas City? (Two hours away). I'm like, um... no?!? Door-to-door means door-to-door. Not door-to-next-state-over. So I fired them. I searched for another company. Got a hold of one and talked to the agent. Explained my situation, gave the sob story. He said, no problem, we'll get this done. Two hours at Staples faxing stuff back and forth (at 2.00 a page, mind you), I upgraded to a Platinum package which, he stated, would get the car picked up in 1-2 days (contract stated 1-3 days). Well (can you see a pattern here?), three days came and no word from a driver. They kept telling me that I would get an email when the car was assigned. Well, at 3 days at noon, no assignment. I said, what's up? Why do you offer a service to get it picked up in 1-3 days when it wasn't going to happen? They said, oh no - the service is to be "assigned" in 1-3 days. We don't charge you for the upgrade until it's assigned. I said, that's BS. Your contract states PICKED up in 1-3 days. Another phone call and the lady in customer DIS-service says, well, the drivers are having a hard time with Manhattan, how do you feel about Kansas City? I lost it. I said, cancel my order, I'm done. I calmed down (a little) and called the (insert expletive) agent and told him exactly why I was cancelling my order, in no uncertain terms. I don't know if it did any good, but it made me feel better. Next time I'm in New York, I'm stopping by to say 'hi'. So... the Edge is still in Ocala. Looks like I'll have to fly down and drive it up here pretty soon. I started going to a new chiropractor and he's got me on a pretty rigorous schedule, so I'll have to figure that out first. Of course, the Edge was supposed to be here first, so I put my books that I'm supposed to be studying in there - since I've been off for a year. Now they'll probably come just before I start.
Monday, I get up, get ready, and head out to open an account at the local bank. They don't have Wachovia's up here (they also don't have PetsMart, Office Max, Office Depot, or any of the normal grocery stores - lol). I was nervous because I thought for sure the movers would come with my stuff and I didn't have their money for them (was just planning on getting it at Wachovia when I got here). Well, that plan didn't work. So I spent most of the morning getting that done. The bank is IN the Walmart (everything revolves around the Walmart here, I found out). But they didn't open until 10 - so I decided to browse the store, since there was a storm. Well, it turns out it was the storm of the century!!! The TORNADO ALARM went off while I was there. I heard a faint thing at first, looked up over the aisles in the front (felt like a prairie dog), looking around to see if anyone else had heard it or were doing anything. Nope - everyone seemed calm, shopping. Well then I *really* heard it and we all got shuffled to the back of the store into "Baby World". Guess they feel we'll feel safer surrounded by pink booties and baby cribs or something. I called Lynnly - a little freaked. The siren stopped, we were allowed to move around the store. Then the HAIL started. Yes... hail. And it was so loud, I couldn't hear Lyn on the phone. My heart just sank - my van, which I had just gotten back after FOUR months in the shop from last years hail storm in Florida, was outside in the parking lot. Just kill me now. I got very lucky - apparently the siren went off because there was softball sized hail out at the airport. You should see some of the cars coming through to the body shops from that. I have a couple of pretty good dents - about $1000 in damage, according to the estimate from Geico. So we'll have to get that worked on I guess. I got home and noticed that the drainage ditch behind the house was halfway full. Figured that would be a good thing to note - that with a bad storm, the ditch fills half way. Oh... and while I was out running around, I talked to one girl, she said "in the Flood of '93, the Walmart you see there used to be a trailer park and it all got washed away. Oh, and we're on a fault line and if we get any sort of tremor, the dam will break and this whole place will flood." She was just all full of good news!!! Welcome to Kansas!!! Want some galoshes with that??
I signed up for severe weather alerts via text message from The Weather Channel - figuring they could let me know when storms that look like they could just be nothing are really something. Well Thursday, I got about 15 text messages. The tornado siren went off AGAIN, hail AGAIN (this time, quarter sized, and the van was in the garage), and the ditch filled TO CAPACITY. Yikes!!! My house is safe, I have a lot of room to go before any of it would get flooded. But it was interesting watching it fill. It drained pretty quickly - by that night it was nearly empty again.
This is Logan's "Pre-Designated Tornado Siren Safety Zone". He has been faithfully and dutifully testing it since we arrived to make sure it meets specifications. Feels that, if he can't see anyone, no one can see him, and he's safe.
Abbie says, "Tornadoes, schmornadoes! I laugh in the face of hail storms!!!"
This is the ditch behind the house. It's about 5 foot deep or so... probably 6-7 feet across at the base, widening as it comes up. That's just rain in the flash, had hail earlier.
My "lake" - filled to capacity.
So... that was Thursday - Friday was beautiful. Got adjusted for the first time - went out to Walmart again (I'm making this a daily routine, this Walmart thing) - and that wasn't such a good idea. I was quite sore. This guy is a little rougher than the last and I guess I need to sit/lay down before getting up and going. Came home, laid on my air mattress and watched a movie. Fell asleep until about 7 and Trisha and Loree called me. Got dinner and then watched another movie. Running out of movies. LOL. Air mattresses have holes in them - I'm practically on the floor in the mornings. Don't know how the heck I can check for leaks in an air mattress - maybe take it out to the lake and dunk it? Just kidding. Seriously - how to check? Got the patching supplies, don't know where to patch.
Saturday - got adjusted again. Same thing - being sore afterwards, so now we know. Go home after. Do stuff before. I went to Home Depot to look for a peep-hole, a dead-bolt, and a storm door for the front. I don't know how these people lived here so long without knowing who is knocking on the front door and without a deadbolt on the door! There's just a push-lock, something you'd find on a bedroom door!
This is a thermal scan of my back... if you can't tell, I'm ALL messed up:
I'm stuffless, carless, sitting in an empty house... and getting bored.
So this is my summer project: The first pic was taken Thursday night.
Second pic was taken Friday night. These are Mammoth Sunflowers.
In case you're wondering - I don't recommend professional movers, but if you must, avoid City Van Lines, East Moving, New Way Moving, and AA Auto Transport.
Stay tuned, I'm sure there's going to be more!!!
This is a magnanimous post, so be forewarned...
The Great Move of 2008 began in March when I found out I was coming to Manhattan, Kansas... home of Kansas State University (Go Wildcats!)... to start a residency in Equine Internal Medicine. In April, mom, dad, and I headed up to Manhattan to look for houses. It's not the easiest place to get to - 2 hrs away from the nearest large airport, and no direct flights to that airport (that I could find). Found a flight for mom and dad that went through Minneapolis and one for me that went through Atlanta. No wonder the flight prices are so high - half the time you have to go north to get south, or west to get east. Doesn't make any sense at all!!!
Found the house that I wanted - only took 12 tries. Most of the places are cookie-cutter - the layout was flipped, the tub was jacuzzi, first thing you saw was the kitchen when you walked in the door. None but the one I ended up with had a fireplace. And none had a basement (don't all Tornado-alley houses come with basements??) I do have a crawl space. But you literally have to crawl into it, and it has a dirt floor. No thanks.
The preparations were underway to get things packed up and ready to move. I decided that, since I had so many animals to worry about transporting, I'd leave the "stuff" moving to the professionals. I'd also have them move the Edge, #1 because it can't take the mileage since it's a lease, and #2, I didn't want to stress about trailering something for the first time with umpteen million animals in my van. So, I contracted with a moving company that offered both services. They, of course, contract those things out to other companies, but dealing with one person was good. I emailed back and forth and she was very nice in answering questions for me - how do I ship this, will this be disassembled, how do I pack that?
Moving Day came. And Moving Day went. No movers. They had called the day before, asking if they could come in an hour. I'm like - um... heck no! I wasn't ready! I packed until 6:45 am, Monday morning. I almost... ALMOST... wrote my name and address on every one of my boxes. But I was too tired to even think straight. So I went to bed for a couple of hours. I waited... and called.... and waited more. They said that they'd be there Tuesday after 5 pm. I said - well, that's perfect, I have an appt at 3:30 - I'll be home by then for sure. So, 5 pm came and went. They called again - "we'll be there between 6-8 pm." Ok, I said. We're still good. 6 pm comes - another call. "We're just leaving Miami!" That's 5 hours away. FIVE HOURS - minimum. Ok... I said. I dragged my TV from out in the garage and set things back up so I could watch the NCIS finale. Guess there had to be some good in it.
Midnight - the movers come. I was a bit wary about some strange guys coming to the house at midnight, me holding a cashier's check for their money, and all this... stuff. But they were very, very nice. Ty was from Isreal and Elvis... well, I'm not sure where Elvis was from. We joked, I helped. They said they'd hire me. I kept offering to take things apart - Elvis laughed at me, saying "ooh... someone's got a new toolbox they want to try out!" Thank goodness I did though, otherwise we'd have been there till 8 am. As it was, we finished at 5 am.
Of course, they negotiated money - I had originally chosen the "per pound" route... but Ty said I'd get a better rate going "per cu ft". And honestly, there wasn't a cubic inch to be fit into the space where Ty had loaded stuff. But I'm sure I got duped on it. Just couldn't think straight at 5 am after 3 days of being up and 2 hrs sleep. And I had planned on looking up whether movers are tipped... Ty kinda hinted at it, so I gave them $50.00. Was able to look up online, some people do, some don't - so at least I know it wasn't outrageous or a lowball tip either. I hate figuring out when/how much to tip!!!
Off the stuff went - most likely to Miami, to be loaded onto an 18 wheeler, Ty said, in order to make it's way north.
That was Wednesday morning (the 22nd of May). I was scheduled to head home to Boca that night so I could go on the Bimini trip for Memorial Day. Got lots of stuff done and then headed home. Wasn't the brightest idea to be driving on so little sleep... but I wanted to get there and be able to sleep in. Lots of stops, lots of coffee and Diet Coke - and I made it home.
We didn't end up going to Bimini after all - the seas were too high to guarantee a ride back on Monday - and no flights could be had. So we went to Sailfish Marina in West Palm Beach instead. It's a nice marina and its right next to Peanut Island, party central for WPB on Memorial Day.
Walking on Peanut Island. Ted Kennedy's Bunker is on the island. Didn't tour it though.
Grandpapa and Kayla on the dink:
Disco dancing:
Lynnly and Kaitlyn:
Jack in the marina - literally about 3-4 feet in length:
Tris da meanie - looking all studly and cool:
One of the many raft-ups:
Yeah - TOTALLY not safe!!!!
We came home on Monday and I immediately packed up and headed back to Ocala - well... not "immediately" - I waited until about 8 pm. Then I stopped at Mike's house so he could see Buddy one last time before we head to the Flint Hills. Got home around 1:30 am and still had a ton of stuff to do. It's truly amazing - I thought I had gone through every drawer, every cabinet - and yet, I still kept finding things I'd left!!!
Loree arrived at 12:50 in Tampa - picked her up and then headed straight back to Ocala. Poor thing - she's always helping me clean the house before I move out!!! But we got things done and even found time for a little dinner at Chili's. Got to bed at midnight and were up at 7 am to start the craziness. I still had a little running around to do and of course my back decided to go out after getting up from the air mattress. So a stop at the chiropractor was needed. I came home and then we loaded up the van. Loree brought everything out to me and I packed it - she just kept bringing stuff out - I said STOP!!! =) She just can't take anymore, Cap'n!! But we managed to get it all in, bungee cords and all.
Buddy, making sure he doesn't get left behind!!!
Bungee cords, holding the cages to my seat so they don't go flying!
4 dogs (Loree's too), 4 cats, 3 birds, and a fish tank!!!
Orion has a "birds-eye-view"!!
Finally settled down after 23 hours...
Everyone did pretty well with the trip - Racer kept wanting to come up front - as did Abbie. Bees was fine in the back. Logan held his spot in the litterbox and crate for the duration... well, until we decided to stop and get some sleep - then he came out and was loving on all of us. The dogs played leap-frog, changing positions at every rest stop. Birds wouldn't shut up - Madhura found her voice that she'd lost at home being next to Pinocchio - so she tried that out for a few hours. Yay fun. Orion could have cared less - he had his bell, and he was fine with that! I can't remember where we stopped to sleep - we tried twice - once at around 11:30 pm - no luck - we had just taken a shot of 5-hr energy (didn't really help to keep us awake while on the road, but try to sleep? Hell no!) and then again at... 7 am? Got about 20 minutes then.
We got through Florida pretty quickly - Georgia... uggh - we HATE Georgia. Mostly because it looked like Florida and it took so damn long to get through it, and mostly for another reason I won't go into. Tennessee - now we LOVED Tennessee. It was beautiful!!! Glad we did that during the day! We went through a small part of Kentucky, then Illinois, and then all the way across Missouri (Misery)... and then 2 hrs to Manhattan - YAY!!!
Here's our trip:
We got to the house around 1:30 pm (Central time). Only took us 27 hours. LOL! Holy crap - we're never doing that again!!!
All was well in the house and the realtor is just so full of awesome - she left us paper plates, napkins, plastic forks/knives/spoons, paper towels, a case of water, fruit, muffins and danishes from Panera, and a beautiful plate!!! She's just a goddess. We set up our air mattresses, got all the kids settled, and then went to sleep. We decided to set our alarm for 7 - figured if we felt good enough to get up, we would - and we would go to dinner. I took Loree to Whiskey Creek, my new favorite restaurant - the one with S'mores for dessert!!! We came back and crashed again. We had another busy day scheduled for Friday - Loree was supposed to leave from Kansas City at 5:25 pm and we wanted to hit Sunset Zoo, Topeka Zoo, and the Bodies Revealed exhibit all before that! We're suckers for punishment!!! The Bodies Revealed exhibit was ok. It was the one with Asian people. I guess since I've spent a million hours dissecting out nerves, tendons, muscles, and organs on animals, that the anatomy didn't really impress me. I was impressed with the preservation and the way they showed the blood vessels. But I guess I was a little surprised at how little there was for a $25.00 ticket. I dropped Loree off and made sure she was able to get on the flight (we were only an hour before take-off, so I wanted to make sure she got through security). She did and I headed home. This was Friday, the 30th of May.
Kelly and "The Frog", aka La Grenouille (ala NCIS!)
Tippy, on her bed.
Buddy has commandeered the air mattress all for himself!
May 31st was the date verbally agreed upon for the delivery of my stuff. May 29th was the date on the contract. No word. Waited... figured, maybe they don't work Saturdays and Sundays (no answer, only answering machine when called)? Called on Monday... they said they are working on it - there's a 2-4 day window... I was ok with that. Well... Thursday, I started getting really angry. I kept calling the moving company that actually moved my items - the guy, Tyler, kept telling me he'd have the driver call me. They never did. I kept calling and he'd give me the same rigamorale. Thursday, I called several times and finally Tyler just turned the phone off. I left two messages - one quite nasty, one pleading - All I want to know is WHERE my stuff is. Is it in Alaska? Is it still stuck in Florida? I just want to know. Meanwhile, I was calling the original company I contracted with - got their voicemail - which just said "Welcome to the voicemail of Box 201, please leave a message". A little suspicious. Finally, I got an email back from Roxie, the person I had originally been talking to. She said she had been out sick and she will work on it. She'll get back to me by Tuesday. Hah. I had called the Consumer Affairs Hotline and they said that everyone is experiencing delays. Said I could file an "inconvenience/delay" complaint with the company, but that I'd have to get the form from the company. Haha. Well, they aren't even answering their phones. I can also type out something and send it to them, via certified mail. They then have 30 days to respond. Well, typing out something and printing it requires a PRINTER!!! Which... is in the Edge.
The Edge. My lovely Edge. I love that car - but kinda hate it right now. Remember that I contracted with this company to move the Edge up here? Worry-free, they'd pick it up and deliver it to my door. DOOR-TO-DOOR service, they offer. Well, the car was supposed to be picked up on the 27th of May. You can all see where this is going. Yep - they didn't pick it up. So I parked it in the garage of the house I was renting, left the keys in it, locked it and had to leave. My pet-sitter, god love her, said she would supervise the pickup. So, many calls later, the car still hadn't been picked up by Monday. I called and they said, oh, we'll pick it up today, I mean, tomorrow. But they're having a problem with Manhattan. Can we drop it off in Kansas City? (Two hours away). I'm like, um... no?!? Door-to-door means door-to-door. Not door-to-next-state-over. So I fired them. I searched for another company. Got a hold of one and talked to the agent. Explained my situation, gave the sob story. He said, no problem, we'll get this done. Two hours at Staples faxing stuff back and forth (at 2.00 a page, mind you), I upgraded to a Platinum package which, he stated, would get the car picked up in 1-2 days (contract stated 1-3 days). Well (can you see a pattern here?), three days came and no word from a driver. They kept telling me that I would get an email when the car was assigned. Well, at 3 days at noon, no assignment. I said, what's up? Why do you offer a service to get it picked up in 1-3 days when it wasn't going to happen? They said, oh no - the service is to be "assigned" in 1-3 days. We don't charge you for the upgrade until it's assigned. I said, that's BS. Your contract states PICKED up in 1-3 days. Another phone call and the lady in customer DIS-service says, well, the drivers are having a hard time with Manhattan, how do you feel about Kansas City? I lost it. I said, cancel my order, I'm done. I calmed down (a little) and called the (insert expletive) agent and told him exactly why I was cancelling my order, in no uncertain terms. I don't know if it did any good, but it made me feel better. Next time I'm in New York, I'm stopping by to say 'hi'. So... the Edge is still in Ocala. Looks like I'll have to fly down and drive it up here pretty soon. I started going to a new chiropractor and he's got me on a pretty rigorous schedule, so I'll have to figure that out first. Of course, the Edge was supposed to be here first, so I put my books that I'm supposed to be studying in there - since I've been off for a year. Now they'll probably come just before I start.
Monday, I get up, get ready, and head out to open an account at the local bank. They don't have Wachovia's up here (they also don't have PetsMart, Office Max, Office Depot, or any of the normal grocery stores - lol). I was nervous because I thought for sure the movers would come with my stuff and I didn't have their money for them (was just planning on getting it at Wachovia when I got here). Well, that plan didn't work. So I spent most of the morning getting that done. The bank is IN the Walmart (everything revolves around the Walmart here, I found out). But they didn't open until 10 - so I decided to browse the store, since there was a storm. Well, it turns out it was the storm of the century!!! The TORNADO ALARM went off while I was there. I heard a faint thing at first, looked up over the aisles in the front (felt like a prairie dog), looking around to see if anyone else had heard it or were doing anything. Nope - everyone seemed calm, shopping. Well then I *really* heard it and we all got shuffled to the back of the store into "Baby World". Guess they feel we'll feel safer surrounded by pink booties and baby cribs or something. I called Lynnly - a little freaked. The siren stopped, we were allowed to move around the store. Then the HAIL started. Yes... hail. And it was so loud, I couldn't hear Lyn on the phone. My heart just sank - my van, which I had just gotten back after FOUR months in the shop from last years hail storm in Florida, was outside in the parking lot. Just kill me now. I got very lucky - apparently the siren went off because there was softball sized hail out at the airport. You should see some of the cars coming through to the body shops from that. I have a couple of pretty good dents - about $1000 in damage, according to the estimate from Geico. So we'll have to get that worked on I guess. I got home and noticed that the drainage ditch behind the house was halfway full. Figured that would be a good thing to note - that with a bad storm, the ditch fills half way. Oh... and while I was out running around, I talked to one girl, she said "in the Flood of '93, the Walmart you see there used to be a trailer park and it all got washed away. Oh, and we're on a fault line and if we get any sort of tremor, the dam will break and this whole place will flood." She was just all full of good news!!! Welcome to Kansas!!! Want some galoshes with that??
I signed up for severe weather alerts via text message from The Weather Channel - figuring they could let me know when storms that look like they could just be nothing are really something. Well Thursday, I got about 15 text messages. The tornado siren went off AGAIN, hail AGAIN (this time, quarter sized, and the van was in the garage), and the ditch filled TO CAPACITY. Yikes!!! My house is safe, I have a lot of room to go before any of it would get flooded. But it was interesting watching it fill. It drained pretty quickly - by that night it was nearly empty again.
This is Logan's "Pre-Designated Tornado Siren Safety Zone". He has been faithfully and dutifully testing it since we arrived to make sure it meets specifications. Feels that, if he can't see anyone, no one can see him, and he's safe.
Abbie says, "Tornadoes, schmornadoes! I laugh in the face of hail storms!!!"
This is the ditch behind the house. It's about 5 foot deep or so... probably 6-7 feet across at the base, widening as it comes up. That's just rain in the flash, had hail earlier.
My "lake" - filled to capacity.
So... that was Thursday - Friday was beautiful. Got adjusted for the first time - went out to Walmart again (I'm making this a daily routine, this Walmart thing) - and that wasn't such a good idea. I was quite sore. This guy is a little rougher than the last and I guess I need to sit/lay down before getting up and going. Came home, laid on my air mattress and watched a movie. Fell asleep until about 7 and Trisha and Loree called me. Got dinner and then watched another movie. Running out of movies. LOL. Air mattresses have holes in them - I'm practically on the floor in the mornings. Don't know how the heck I can check for leaks in an air mattress - maybe take it out to the lake and dunk it? Just kidding. Seriously - how to check? Got the patching supplies, don't know where to patch.
Saturday - got adjusted again. Same thing - being sore afterwards, so now we know. Go home after. Do stuff before. I went to Home Depot to look for a peep-hole, a dead-bolt, and a storm door for the front. I don't know how these people lived here so long without knowing who is knocking on the front door and without a deadbolt on the door! There's just a push-lock, something you'd find on a bedroom door!
This is a thermal scan of my back... if you can't tell, I'm ALL messed up:
I'm stuffless, carless, sitting in an empty house... and getting bored.
So this is my summer project: The first pic was taken Thursday night.
Second pic was taken Friday night. These are Mammoth Sunflowers.
In case you're wondering - I don't recommend professional movers, but if you must, avoid City Van Lines, East Moving, New Way Moving, and AA Auto Transport.
Stay tuned, I'm sure there's going to be more!!!