Schadenfreude Moving

Dear God,

Could today have gone any worse?

It starts at the UHaul place. My father had arrived 20 minutes early and was freaking out because there was no truck under my name. I got there and got it sorted, they had a truck, but my name was mistyped. They gave me a truck with three-quarters of a tank, rather than the full tank that I had initialed the contract about.

We get to the storage place and get to my unit. The lock was frozen. Happily, my father had a screwdriver and a hammer in his car. With some judicious smacking, we got the lock rotating. Unfortunately, we couldn't get the damned thing to open. Dad had a hacksaw. (I do hope he's also got a jack otherwise, he's going to have some troubles with a flat.)

While they worked on that, I went to the office to see if I could get a bolt cutter to snap the lock. They promised to send someone out. My father and my brother had sawed almost through it, when the lock popped open.

Now the storage unit door wouldn't open. (There was ice covering it.) My brother and my father were chipping away at the ice, but it didn't do much good. The maintenance guy came by with the bolt cutters. That wasn't useful, but he went and got some ice chippers. That worked much better to get the door opened.

Then the drive to Boston began. We got to the place and I went to the front door and remembered something. Before we left, I had printed off directions, so that we'd be covered in case we got separated. Unfortunately, I left my USB thumb drive in the computer - with the key ring it was attached to. That was about 150 miles back and almost 90 minutes ago.

While I was freaking out about that, my brother and my father showed up. My good news/bad news attempt at humor didn't go over well.

I checked with my landlord - no one was home - called my roommate - away from his desk - and figured we couldn't do anything until they called, so we went to grab some lunch.

Once I got the landlord's key, moving in was short, simple and easy.

I drive to the UHaul to drop off the truck - and promptly get lost. I call UHaul, who tells me that they don't have a UHaul location at the address I was given. They give me a different address. I drive to it and find it's the same place that I was going to. My address is their side street, the address I had just gotten was the main street it was on.

As expected, there was nothing that I could do about the gas. I had initialized it. But they also wouldn't accept the truck because there was some crap in the back that was in there when I got it. So I had to clean all of that out, before they'd take the damned truck. I shoved it all into a trash can at the place.

And as an added bonus, when I got home, I found out that tickets for a friend to visit were wrong and I need to go to Orbitz tomorrow and try to change them. AIGH!

At least the day is almost over.

Sleep Study

Woo! I have an appointment. Now I just need to find some footie jammies, so that I don't scare the nurses by sleep in the raw.

Ah... Health Care...

Okay, I'm perfectly willing to say that I was spoiled by the UK health care system while I was over there. Say what you like about the National Health Service (NHS), it was simple. You go to the doctor in your neighborhood, they take care of you, and because of my medical condition, I even got free meds. No hassles with insurance or anything like that, the only issue is that I might have to wait a few weeks for an appointment. When I had to go to the hospital, ambulance, visit and meds were all free and the care fantastic.

Now, I'm back home in Boston. My doctor refers me to a sleep center to get checked for sleep apnea. I call the referral number. They can't do anything because they haven't been given a fax from my doctor. I call my doctor and get bounced to the referral department of the health center that he works with. They can't do anything until they get a doctor's name. I call the sleep center. They can't give me a doctor's name until they have a referral.

Jesus H. Christ!

I called back. Oh, no. It's less of a referral that they need than a doctor's order, so that they know what I need and where I'll be going. Okay, I told them where I lived and explained that we're just trying to find out if I have sleep apnea. Unfortunately, that doesn't nail it down enough.

More phone calls and more annoyance on both ends. At least now, it's back with my doctor faxing something to the sleep center so that hopefully they'll let me schedule an appointment.

Happily, this isn't the same for all things. I called up my doctor and got an appointment to see him in a month or so. And a referral to the dermatologist is only about a week away. So at least that's working okay.

Proud Member of the Miskatonic Mouse Club

M i s . . . um... Aigh!

Quiet Week

Fighting a miserable cold.
As well as miserable code, at work, but that's a different issue.
Cough my way through the days at work, then go home to curl up in bed with a pile of comics that I've slowly been making my way through.
All in all, I think the only thing taht I've been missing is ginger ale and ritz crackers liberally spread with peanut butter to feel like I'm 8 again.

Harvard Square

I've always liked this window.

Primary Day!

It's Primary Day in Mass. (And many other states around the country.) Don't forget to get out and do your civic duty today!

Another bad diet day...

It's been a while, but I fell off the B&J's wagon.

But boy did it taste good.