Saturday, May 22, 2010

Living in the land of frustration

This moving thing continues to not go as planned (starting with being moved in before Alex was born!). This last week has been an exercise in frustration and a reminder of our blessings.

We haven't moved yet. When we signed the contract on our new house we thought we'd be closed on Friday, May 21 & moved in on May 22. This was assuming we would close by May 15 on our current house. Our mortgage on the new house is ready to go, pending the money from the current house. The current house on the other hand - the underwriters requested 5 more business days. And they don't work Fridays. I've called them some creative names at this point. We're hoping we will move next weekend (sometime around baptizing the boy on Sunday). But our contracts are extended to June 2, so no freaking guarantees.

To top it off, a week ago when I thought we were moving, I started to TRY to move our utilities online. The phone/internet/satellite website was annoying so I decided to move it via phone, just like I ordered it. I started to move our electric scheduling to start the power at the new house on Friday and end the power at the current house Monday. Before I could finish the transfer the website told me it was unable to complete my transaction. I decided to call later. When it became clear I was unable to move I just let it go . . .

Until Kat came home to no power Friday afternoon. We thought it was outage (there had been storms) but then it went on too long. I got through the company and they told me I ordered a cut off for Friday and just as I was explaining (embarassingly loudly) that this was not the case & they better bloody well fix it, I got disconnected. I called back & got disconnected again. I called a 3rd time, got a human who told me "Our systems are down. Call back in 30 minutes". Rob called 30 minutes later, explained the situation to another Helpful Hanna and also got told I ordered this. He explained what happened last week, that there was no way in H*&! that I ordered a cut off for Friday (even if we were moving) and got told that yes I did, that's what the computer said. They apparently can't reactivate power after 3 PM on a Friday. He did eventually convince them to schedule the hookup for Monday. (5 month old babies do not constitute emergencies apparently) We will be billed for reactivation, but they will refund us later. Gee thanks.

On to life's blessings. Having survived Hurricane Ike we know what multiple days without power is like and it's not something I want to experience with an infant. We considered driving to my parents 4 hours north. But before packing up the car, I called one of my friends from church. Her daughter is with the grandparents so she has the house to herself. She took Elena, Alex, Rob & I, along with Rory & our laundry in until Monday morning. Kat's with her mom until Sunday and with a friend Sunday night to make getting to school easier. A very sweet girl at the kennel agreed to stay open past closing to guarantee the cats would get checked in on Friday. She's even checked them into a deluxe apartment for the price of a regular. After the J-As at the electric company who referred the lack of AC in 90+ degree heat (with humidity!) for 3 days with an infant & pre-schooler as an "inconvenience" it's good to have friends and people who are nice to cats.

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