Wednesday, January 10, 2007

We've made it!

We made the move.  We are now official Virginian-ian-ite-onians, (Aren't you jealous)

The kids were absolutely great sports about the whole ordeal.  Even through the stress we know we were showing them.  To begin, we had to be here by 12:00 today to greet the gasman who was supposed to be here sometime between 12 and the natural decomposition of the home (well, 5:00 anyway.)  I called the gas company to request a more precise time to shoot for only to be told that my three choices were 12-5, 8-12, or all day.  So we had to be here by 12, but not after that poor lady (though unsympathetic as she was) had to listen to my longwinded complaints.  So we get here and the gas guy shows at around 12:30 (and tells Jax that they don't work after 3:00 anyway) so it was good that we went ahead and got here.  He was somewhat successful.  He turned on the gas, got the fireplace, water heater, and stove/oven turned on and firing, but NOT THE FURNACE.  So I call the owner, tell him the furnace guy's gonna need to be called and it'll be on his (the owner's) dime and he says, "yeah, sure, go ahead".  Furnace guy gets here, says it's not the furnace, it's the gas pressure and we need to call the gas people out, but to tell them that we smell gas or they won't send anyone until tomorrow (knowing the treatment I got from the gas company last time, I didn't doubt this) and I do.  The Gas company tells me the guy will come to check for gas leaks and only gas leaks.  He will not relight any pilots, nor will he repair anything else.  Fair enough, I put in a separate request for the repairs of gas pressure.  Gas guy shows, says we're crazy, there's no gas leak (duh) and asks what we really called for. "Oh, we probably just smelled from the work the furnace guy was doing.  We know you aren't going to do any repairs, there's a second guy coming right after you leave to repair the pressure problem."  So gas guy #1 calls homebase and tells them he is going to take the second call (this after the gas company tells me that the #1 guy CAN'T (read isn't equipped) to make repairs of this nature) and shows me the readings to prove to me that we are indeed receiving the proper pressure from the system.  So I call the Furnace guy again and he says sure, first thing in the morning he'll be over to fix it.  I tell him sure, you just pick up the tab for my hotel room tonight and you've got yourself a deal because my wife and family aren't going to sleep in a freezing house while he's at home with his in a warm one.  After this, he assured me he'd be out this night and he was.

9:00 we have heat.

And Afghan food.

Yes, we have restaurants here.  If there was only one thing I couldn't stand about Jacksonville, it was the lack of restaurants. There you are right on the coast and you can't find fresh seafood ANYWHERE!!  Las Vegas gets fresh seafood and here we were having to choke down frozen fish?!?!?!?  Oh, you want a steak, throw a rock and you're bound to hit a steak place (I'm not joking.  I have a friend who was hit by a rock while waiting to get into a restaurant in J-ville.) but if you're looking for diversity, well, don't bother.  So when we looked for restaurants tonight, we started at the beginning... Afghan.  Had a really nice meal!  I haven't eaten that good of Afghan food since... well... Afghanistan.  Anyone comes to visit, you're welcome to try it with my recommendation (the guy also liked my broken farsi, he thought it was a hoot.)

Anyway, I'm going to bed, just wanted o let everyone know we are in safe and sound WITH heat and are now just waiting for furniture and cable.  Phone numbers and e-mails are all the same, so no slacker excuses for not getting in touch.  And, as always, I leave comments open on my posts if you are shy about calling or have lost my number.

Tim

2 comments:

Mary Ellen said...

Yay! Congrats on a successful move.

sarahs said...

Welcome to your new home! It's beautiful! I've finally figured out how to keep up with the Lewis'... read the blogs.

Sarah Steele