Back in the good old days, moving was a breeze.

I could fit everything I owned in a Plymouth Volare and the only communications device I had to worry about was the phone. Nobody cared then if that took a week because we didn’t think we had to be in contact 24-7.

Eventually, I outgrew the Volare and had to beg for help from a pickup truck. Next came a UHaul and, finally, professional movers.

Add four times as many people and eight times as much stuff, though, and you better make sure you know where the ibuprofen is packed. Sadly, I did not.

Even worse: In this era of instant communications, getting all of it set up is anything but fast. That’s why I’m in my second week of being held hostage in my own home, waiting for installations.

My grand scheme, you see, failed. Armed with my beloved Blackberry, I thought I didn’t care how long it took me to return to the wired world.

Landline? Don’t need it. Net service? A little slower via the Blackberry, but workable. Cable? OK, so maybe I’m in a little more of a hurry on that one. Boots can only go so many days without Noggin before he starts gnawing off his own limbs.

Roughly 3.6 minutes after getting here, my plan blew up.

Most of Fort Irwin, you see, is the cell phone blackhole of the universe. I’ve heard rumors that AT&T works well, but Verizon is hopeless. The only place in the house I can consistently get a signal is upstairs, but only if I’m lying on the bed, head toward the headboard. If I move a millimeter, the call’s dropped.

So much for phone and net service. Good thing I had mountains of boxes to unpack to distract me. Weirdly, unpacking was the easy part. It was over in two days. The rest lingers like a bad New Year’s Eve hangover.

I was so stir crazy one day – and desperate to make some pressing calls – that I set up office in the PX. It was the only place on post where I could get a cell signal and free WiFi. I gladly would have paid for WiFi, except my oh-so-considerate bank had decided to shut down my credit card because it was concerned about fraud.

Even in the PX, there is one and only one spot where I can get a clear cell signal, strong wireless and an electrical outlet – I had more to catch up on than my laptop has battery capacity.

It was the closest to normal I would see for another week. We have a phone and a wired modem, but the wireless still isn’t hooked up. The company’s sent the wrong modem twice. The second might well work eventually, even though it’s far cheaper than the one I was promised, except they sent it without any instructions.

Part of the TVs are working, but I’ve been unable to get a DVD player wired with the cable box also hooked up. I’m wondering when Boots will start chewing on an arm due to Thomas withdrawal.

There’s been exactly one day this week when I haven’t been held hostage in the house, waiting on an installer or equipment delivery or repair.

We still have a pound of paperwork to plow through, and today someone goofed up a crucial form that resulted in our address changing from our old address to our old address.

Next move, I promise not to plan a darn thing. No lists, no carefully organized forms. Doing everything on the fly couldn’t possibly be as frustrating as this has been.

Copyright 2009 Debra Legg. All rights reserved.

Similar Posts:

None Found

Popularity: 1% [?]