Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Utility companies (and the USPS) are the new enemy

Well, we finally moved in last Friday. The new house is beautiful, Micah loves his new playroom, and we're slowly unpacking all the junk we'd forgotten we had. Life, overall, is pretty good.

Now, for the bitching.

1) Up until the very day we closed on the house, the local water authority refused to allow us water service, because the sewer pump station wasn't finished. Except that it WAS finished, and everything was on and working. They were holding out on the homeowners because our builder needed to put in some dirt along the pump station driveway. And that dirt had to be personally inspected by the head of the local water service. Who was on vacation.

Those water authority guys almost cost us an awful lot of money. They DID cost us an awful lot of stress and wasted time. Remind me to send them a nice card at Christmas. One filled with the best anthrax money can buy.

2) A couple weeks before we were supposed to move, the builder mentioned all offhand-like that our section of the neighborhood didn't have gas yet. As in, it hadn't even been run to the area. At the time, he wasn't even sure when it would actually be run. And we were all, "Uh, dude, we have GAS COOKTOP."

"But it's okay," he said. "We'll install an electric cooktop in the interim. That way we can get the Certificate of Occupancy, and you'll have a cooktop." We agreed. We moved. Then we found out that the wiring for an electric cooktop is totally different from that of a gas cooktop, and consequently, ain't nothin workin. Fast forward, and FINALLY, 5 days after we moved in, the gas is connected and our cooktop is working.

Gosh, I'm glad someone thought to call the gas company BEFORE it became a huge inconvenience for...oh, wait.

3) We won't have phone or internet until at least July 30th because there are no wires in our section of the neighborhood. Even though we called AT&T quite some time ago and asked about that very issue.

4) And finally, the best of all. Today Todd went over to the post office to forward our mail. He'd tried previously to use the online service, but that didn't work. So he went to set it up with the postal worker, and she couldn’t find the address anywhere. This led her to argue with Todd about whether or not we actually live in our town (the answer is a resounding "yes, and also, are you simple?"). Then, once convinced that we do in fact live there, she told him that they'd have to measure the new distance on the route before anything could be approved. The entire extra half-mile deeper into the neighborhood would have to be verified PERSONALLY by the postmaster, who would then decide "if we want to service that mailbox." And, of course, the postmaster is on vacation. FOR THREE WEEKS.

So, no mail for at least three weeks. Oh, but we can go pick it up on Saturdays between 8 and 10! Because that's not an inconvenience, is it? Doesn't everyone want to drive all the way to the post office to pick up their mail? I mean, what kind of lazy person really needs postal service to their house anyway? You know, I bet the USPS could save a lot of money just by eliminating mail delivery. Yay, we just solved the USPS budget crisis!

...Guess what those guys are getting from me for Christmas?

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