The Move

We're here! And we're wireless. "As soon as I find where Mose hid the wires, I'll get that taken care of"... okay, so Mose isn't involved, but we are without power, which is I presume what Dwight was getting at when he said that :-)
However, my brilliant husband (he is a PhD you know) figured out how to connect his phone to the computer so we have internet. All of this after our really wonderful new neighbors brought over a 100ft extension cord so we could have light! And then Jason attached it to a power strip, and now we have two lamps, the iron, a phone charger and the computer all hooked up. It's like we're part of the 21st century again :-)

Moving day went very well. We are so grateful and blessed by our awesome Lubbock family (and biological family - Craig and Dad Northrup) who came and helped empty our house up and fill up a large uhaul. We learned from Ryan and Keri Jane's experience and upgraded our uhaul size that day ;-). So at about 2:30 on Friday afternoon, with Dallas in the front seat of the uhaul with Dad Northrup and Craig and Jason in the trusty Saturn, they took off and arrived around 9:30pm. For those of you wondering, Dallas did well until Dad Northrup hit the warning bumps on the side of the road. From that point on things got interesting as Dallas attempted to ride in Dad N's lap, then under Dad N's feet, and eventually much too close to the gas and brake. Somehow they worked things out and arrived in one piece ;-) LynnAnne, Madalyn and I had a very nice, almost leisurely ride out the next day. I'll let Jason tell you what the fellas were experiencing during that time...

OK, so we rolled in about 9:30 to find that the house had no power and no water. The power was a surprise, as I had made arrangements online to have the power connected that day. The water was not a surprise as I had been told that someone had to be at the house to have the water turned on but that I could call their late service line by 10 PM to have someone turn it on for a $10 fee. I called this line and left a message that we were here and needed water. I called the electricity retailer that I had set up service with online only to find that there was no one to take my call until the next day. They said that for outages I should call the utility company (the utility and the retailer are different here...this was not the case in Lubbock so it has taken some getting used to). By 10:30 I figured that since I had not received a call from the water utility that they did not get my message in time. So me, Craig, and my dad pulled the mattress out of the Uhaul and some sleeping bags and blankets and camped out in our powerless, waterless house. When we woke up we found a note on the front door: the water utility had come at 12:30 AM and they decided no one was here. This is most likely because they rang the doorbell and received no answer. Why? Because doorbells dont' work without power.

So Saturday morning my dad treated us to IHOP. At 9:00 AM I hit the phones with the electric retailer and asked why my service was not on. They said that because the service request fell on a weekend that the order would not be filled until the next business day...Monday. Why, I asked, did they not send me an email or call me to make me aware of this? They had no answer. I called the utility to see what could be done. The employee could see my service request and it was scheduled to be filled Monday. There was nothing she could do on their end to make the connection that day. She suggested I call the retailer back and try to get a priority order. I did this and was told that if I did I would be charged a $97 service fee and that it still would not happen until Monday because there was no one in their corporate office on the weekend to process the order. I told them that I would then find a retailer who could complete this connection on Saturday and would not be using their services after all.

Meanwhile I called the Belton COC moving ministry contact person. His wife picked up and informed me that he and 7 other members of that ministry had just left for Mexico. Par for the course. She said that she'd make some calls and see who might be able to make it. Thankfully a few members did come and helped Craig, and my dad unload the truck. I helped some but I was mostly on the phone trying to get power.

I called the utility back and asked which retailers could get a priority request in that day. They said TXU. So I called TXU and after being on hold for about 20 minutes got through. They confirmed that they could do this. I said let's do it then. The employee was about to start taking down my information when MY PHONE DIED!!! I called back on my dad's phone and of course after being on hold for another 2o minutes was speaking to a different employee. This employee told me that they could not get the request filled for Saturday. I asked why then did the first employee tell me I could? He said he had given me incorrect information. I asked to speak to a supervisor because my wife and 7 month old child were coming and I would like to have power this weekend. He put me on hold for 30 minutes to talk to a supervisor. Before this could happen I lost the connection somehow even though my reception was just fine. So I called them a 3rd time. The new person said there was a chance I could get power today if I paid the $97 fee and the utility got the request in time. I said let's gamble. So I gave them my information. Later that day after Kirsten had arrived I called the utility to see if they had the new request. They said they did but the power was not scheduled to be restored until Monday. WHAT?!! So I called TXU back and told them the situation. One of their service people called up the utility and informed me what was going on: The first retailer that I had cancelled service with had not sent in their order for cancellation yet. The utility cannot act on the 2nd service request until the first one is terminated. So we will not be getting power until Monday at the earliest and it will cost me an extra $97. Had I done nothing at all we would be better off. At some point during all of this, however, the water people came back and turned on our water. So at least there's that.

By the way, since we have an electric water heater, you can imagine what taking showers is like right now. Bad times, man, bad times.

Saturday night Kirsten and I attended a party hosted by the owner of the practice I am joining. She throws this once a year to say thanks to all of the people that send referrals to her practice. She held it at a restaurant/bar that her son helped renovate. We took Craig and he sat in the bar and watched the UT/Tech game, the whole time proudly sporting a Tech cap in a bar full of UT fans. He said that one UT fan bought him a shot simply for being a Tech fan. This fan later told him that he had $2500 on UT. Craig said after the first half during which Tech was trouncing UT that he hoped that UT came back for his sake. And of course they did. After the party I took Kirsten back home but went back to the bar to watch the end of the game. I saw UT somehow score a touchdown to lead by 1. The bar went nuts and started giving us looks that basically said, "See? There was never a chance. Know your place and shut up." Tech had 1:30 to score. With 1 second left they did (you have to see the highlights if you haven't already). This is after UT missed 2 chances to intercept and end the game. Craig and I were going crazy. The UT fans were in disbelief. There was one other Tech fan in another corner of the bar who came over to celebrate with us. Then we left before we were jumped. Good times.

So hopefully tomorrow we will get power and normal internet service. We'll keep you updated of course.