We Still Have Our Health... (knock on wood)

This is how it works:

You move in, you call the utility companies, you stop utilities in the old place, start them up in the new place, fill out the change of address form at the post office, and you are done, right?? RIGHT??

Not this time.

How the Karmic Utility/Appliance Bus Ran Over Us:

Item 1)
Cable/Internet/Phone: They shut us down at the old house 2 weeks before we moved, and we had to fight to get it all turned back on.

Item 2)
Cable/Internet/Phone: They took away our old number and gave us a new one, but we were able to get the old one back after lots of haggling.

Item 3)
Cable/Internet/Phone: They took 3 hours to set it all up in the new house, and then there was still no internet in the, um, OFFICE! So another guy had to come again the next day, for another 3 hours. He was nice… he moved over the cable outlet so that it would go BEHIND the entertainment center just because I said it bugged me. And he tacked down my actual electric power cable to run along the baseboard just because I told him my toddlers like to pull on it. NOT the cable, just the power cable. Nice, eh? Another 3 hours. After he left, we found our TV channels were now all fuzzy, though, sigh…

Let’s talk appliances:

Item 4)
The Dishwasher: Worked fine for the last tenant. For us, it ran through the whole cleaning cycle in less than a minute. Which would be great if the dishes came out clean at the end. A repairman came out.

Item 5)
The Washing Machine: Part of a brand new set, the front-loader of Michael’s dreams. On the first run it began leaking suds out the bottom of the front door.

Item 6)
The Clothes Dryer: After a full night of drying, the clothes were still wet. Had to drag the monster washer out into the hall to get at the back of the dryer. Then, the clothes would dry, but my, oh my, what a nasty smell of natural gas. 24 hours of a motorized vent in the room (smart!) and keeping the door shut until Michael could come drag that baby out into the hall again. After hearing reports of a church exploding back east because of a gas leak, I began alternately closing up the room, and releasing all the pent up gas to the house when the kids were playing outside or sleeping upstairs.

Then, I made the mistake of telling a friend that the fridge is the only thing working. Madame Karma was listening. Or was it Mr. Murphy of Murphy’s Law?

Item 7)
The Fridge: We had just bought a high-end but dented and scratched refrigerator for hundreds off because of the cosmetic damage. It had a 30 day money-back-guarantee from the guy who sold it to us from his 2-car-garage full of dented and scratched appliances. On the 29th day, the motor started getting a little loud, buy, hey, we were moving and nothing was working. At least the fridge was working! On the 31st day the LED readout of the thermostat on the front push-button panel (yeah, I said it was high-end), started blinking. Then the numbers started rising.

It is currently 60 degrees inside my fridge, has been most of the day, and we haven’t even begun to call anyone to repair it.

Sigh…

This weekend, we are hoping to get the office set up, computer and all. Send us your good electrical/cable/wireless energy and prayers.

Nowhere to go but up.

I hope.