Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Trifecta of Evil

So, the last few days have been eventful.

Yesterday, after getting my mother from the airport and going to the science center, I came home to find our neighbor's truck parked on our side lawn, next to the family room window. Not the driveway side, but the actual lawn side. It wasn't just any truck, either, but an extended cab, long bed huge, honkin' blue truck with a tiny for sale sign on it. The day before, I had told him (I don't know his name, but I believe he's dating our neighbor to the back, Lori) that it was OK to put a sign on our lawn about the truck he wanted to sell. Seems he decided to post the sign on his truck. Surprise! So, I called the number on the truck and said that THAT would HAVE to GO, but that he was still welcome to put a sign on the lawn. Jeeze.

About an hour later, someone was at the door, and DH answered it, thinking it would be Lori to apologize for the truck incident. Nope. It was our next door neighbor to the other side, the older woman who came over a week ago looking for information about the relocation, since the county hadn't called her yet, and who had then let loose with a number of words, including the N word, that I would have preferred that she not use in front of Josie, or even in the general vicinity of our home. Not only was it this woman, but also her daughter and granddaughter, who used to live here, and who had decided that they wanted to see the place one more time. We hadn't invited these people over, and I was in the middle of making dinner! They made themselves right at home in the family room (where they had a nice view of the truck), and STAYED HALF AN HOUR! I tried calling to the kids to wash their hands for dinner. Nope. I tried going into the family room to say hi, where I was greeted by the daughter and granddaughter like I was an alien in THEIR house, and said that I'd love to hang out, but I was in the middle of making dinner. Nope. THEN, the daughter and granddaughter started wandering through the house, looking at the kitchen WHILE I'm COOKING!!!!! Finally, as I was literally dishing out the food, they left. Maybe they were looking for an invite. Jeeze.

Well, that was all OK, because the relocation people were coming today. I went to bed thinking about it, woke up thinking about it, ran all over the house this morning preparing for it. DH stayed home from work for the meeting. They were coming at 9:30.

Or were they?

NO, they weren't. They weren't coming at 9:30, or 10, or 10:30, or even 11. In fact, they weren't coming AT ALL. They never showed up! We called their offices, their cell phones, and their receptionist and got nothing but voicemail. Finally, at NOON, we got ahold of Frank the relocation contractor, who had the gall to ask DH if he'd checked his email! Apparently, he had sent an email at 9:40 (yes, ten minutes AFTER he was supposed to have been here) that they weren't coming because the package needed to be approved by the commissioner, who was on vacation until tomorrow or something. Now, I know he knew that yesterday. In fact, I'm pretty certain he knew that Last Week, because I know for a fact that he had a meeting with Joe, who is an actual county person, and who is in charge of ferrying all documents to and from county officials, last Wednesday night. Yeah. So, needless to say, I went completely apoplectic and sent Mr. Joe, who is the only person in this mess who has actually been accessible and polite, an email with an earful (eyeful?) of documentation of the many, many ways his contractors have totally screwed up (except I'm not thinking of a word that nice). I was pretty much in tears, but after I wrote all of it down and sent it away I felt better. He is on vacation until tomorrow, and I will speak to him tomorrow whether or not he wants to speak to me. I have had it.

So, just for the record, that's three weeks for an appraisal, two canceled / missed appointments, one unannounced appointment with a second appraiser, and literally no phone calls with any information from them at all. This, ladies and gentlemen, is your tax dollars at work!

So, I have no idea what's going on, when it's going on, or who it will be going on with. Maybe someday we'll have an answer, but I'm beginning to think that we're going to know the meaning of life first.

Just for added fun, my mother is here until Thursday, and DH is leaving for Vancouver tomorrow, not to return until Sunday morning. Yippee!

2 comments:

Swistle said...

Okay, you are getting MORE THAN YOUR FAIR SHARE of CRAP recently. What is WITH things? You are totally due for a smooth transition from one house to the next, and perhaps little fairies to help carry boxes and keep the children pleasant and quiet.

Sarah said...

Oh dear. Sometimes people just baffle me. I mean, not the whole government officials being officially inefficient, because what else are they EVER? But the neighbor and her granddaughter? Were they raised in a barn? And the neighbor with the TRUCK in your yard? I mean, whaa...?