Is it a sex blog? A mommy blog? A bitch & moan blog? Um, . . . yeah. This is my place to be totally honest. In my real life, I feel like I'm always lying to somebody about something. Here, I am totally honest. Brutally so. However, no matter what bad things I say about my kids, I adore them and would never ever really, say, sell them on Ebay. The husband, often referred to as Spousehole, is another story. Oh yeah - if you are under 18 (or if you are my husband), please leave now.

Monday, October 6, 2008

STILL NO INTERNET!

So I'm here at the library again . . .

Apparently Slime-Corner is as effed up as y'all (see, I'm suthern now!) said. They didn't show up because we hadn't paid the amount due, which their email said was $0.00. They said that even if we didn't owe anything, we still had to call and make the payment. WTF?!? Apparently we're supposed to call and say "Hi, I'd like to pay my amount due of $0.00" and they'll say "Okee dokee, all set" and then the guys will come. Right. Spousehole has authorized me to go with another company. Our choices are rhymes with Bombastic, rhymes with Phrenology (a local co), and the easily forgotten choice of Hey Key and Bee, which offers digital television too. I'm checking the various rates in another window here, so we'll see.

In addition to phone, internet, and television, I am also living without another modern convenience that most of us take for granted: a microwave. I've gone 4 weeks now without one. I wanted to bring mine from Michigan since it works great and I've had it since I was 19 and it's never given me any trouble. It was high-end when I got it and that quality has really shone through. It still looks good as new and works just as well. But it also fits perfectly in the space provided for it in the cabinetry of the Michigan kitchen, so Spousehole, my dad, and my real estate agent convinced me to leave it. But Spousehole keeps putting off buying a new one. We got a $1000 of the reimbursement for moving expenses from his employer and I expected to put a percentage of that toward a new microwave. But no-oo-ooo-ooo-ooo: Spousehole already earmarked the entire reimbursement to pay for work on his motorcycle! Idiot. He said "I told you it was $80 per hour, not including parts" My reply: But you never told me it was going to be 12+ hours!!!! WTF? That 1997 bike isn't even worth that much! Apparently something or another is leaking and something about piston rings and blah blah blah. It sounds like they are essentially rebuilding the engine from the little bit I listened to of Spousehole's explanation. He bitches about me paying for the "high-mileage" oil for my van (over 131,000 miles on it) but he can pay that for his bike? Whatever. End result is still no microwave for me. Or the kids. Or him. I plan to remedy the no microwave situation this weekend. We're getting one whether he likes it or not.

Apparently the only way you can prove you live in Podunk is to have a utility bill in your name. I have to have a utility bill in my name to get a driver license, register to vote, and even to get a library card. I'm not kidding. Since Spousehole was here first and therefore set up the utilities, nothing is in my name. Perhaps getting cable in my name will help. Even with that, I still can't get a driver license until the marriage license I just ordered online arrives. Apparently having a passport and Michigan driver license in my married name isn't enough. They still have to see the marriage license to show the legal basis for the name change from that on my birth certificate. I also have to have my social security card, even though I already showed them my passport and birth certificate to prove I am a U.S. citizen (a requirement to get a license here - what do legal permanent resident non-citizens do? just walk everywhere?). The "utility bill in your name" thing applies everywhere, even school. The lease for the house we're renting (can't buy one until we sell the Michigan house) wasn't good enough to get the boy into school. Since it was too soon for us to have gotten an electric bill yet, I had to go to the electric company and get a letter verifying that we get electric service in Spousehole's name at the address we claimed as our home. (At least the school would take something in Spousehole's name since he is also Boy's parent.) School was kind of a pain too. Even though I had all Boy's records sent well before we even left Michigan, it still took 1.5 weeks after we arrived before Boy could start school. We had to have an IEP meeting and not everyone could get together until a week-and-a-half after we arrived. God forbid they could have checked everyone's schedules and set it up for right after we arrived, but that would be way too logical. Nope - they didn't even check the schedules until after we were physically present in the state. Maybe they have a problem with people calling them a ton of times, talking to school psychologists and such, and having a ton of records faxed AND mailed from their state of origin, and then just not showing up. IDK.

Hope to be back soon. It looks like I'm going with rhymes-with-Bombastic -- keep your fingers crossed!!!

To blog is a self-invasion of privacy

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the South honey! Sorry to hear about your troubles, but glad to see you're back. Even if it's from a library computer. I sure hope things settle down for you soon.

Alfro said...

Sounds a lot like our relocation a year ago (except the motorcycle and the microwave stuff.
We have a daughter on an IEP also. What a cluster that was. Even though we stayed within the State, it is just hard to believe how difficult it was to get her records to the new school, and have them do anything with them, before we where actually standing in front of them.
Thanks for the update. Best of luck with the microwave, and sorry to hear of the problems with Spousholes "Ride" (Dumbass).

Weekends Off said...

That relocation sounds like a giant pain in the arse!!! Do they not want new residents in that town or what!!!

Pluff said...

My BIL is in the military. They move cross country once every three years. It's the same no matter what state. Government and beauracracy screwing up a perfectly good idea like moving...

It'll get better.. I hope!

Val said...

Glad to see you back online (even if it's thru the library ;-)
Hearing about your moving woes is just one more reason I'm staying put for a very very VERY long time...

Bob said...

I love moving. It's the only time I can get Wifey to get rid of stuff and believe me, she has a bunch of stuff. Good luck with settling in and "nesting". It all comes in time . . . then there's always all of the boxes in the garage to contend with. . . that's a whole 'nother story. Glad you're back.

Brian Gardes said...

Don't you just love the "slow southern lifestyle?" Guess we are going to be getting the HNT librarian edition for a while. ;)

ZigZagMan said...

Glad to hear yu live lass! Hope things even out soon utility wise!! :)

Old Knudsen said...

Is that banjo music I hear playing? I laugh when I hear it called the 'united' states not even a passport will do.

Project Christopher said...

I have to admit I had a good chuckle reading this blog. But beleive me, I'm laughing with you... even though you're not laughing :) I know the ways are different, but they're just different. Once you're used to the systems of the south (and there are more, just wait) you'll get comfortable with them and you'll even find ways to make them work in your favor!~
The whole "utility bill in your name" stunned me too when I was just out of college and moving from apartment to apartment. A friend of mine in law enforcement said there were so many folks who skipped on utility bills the utilities started using each other's sources to help track down the skippers so they saw that as a catch net and figured you had at least something going on financially to have a utility. Of course that lasted about a day before the freeloaders found a way around it.

hang in there, the south isn't ALL bad. :)

Jenny said...

You are missed.