Someone really needs to talk to all the packing boxes that are occupying my house right now. Promiscuity needs to be discussed at length. Those packing boxes just seem to keep reproducing at the same rate as rabbits – maybe even faster! I keep packing and hauling and unpacking and they just keep coming. I’m beginning to wonder if they will EVER end.
Ole is making great progress at cleaning out the pole barn – just a few tons of junk treasures left now. Thankfully the weather has cooperated to perfection and we haven’t had any really cold temps or much of any snow to be battling with during this time.
Now me, on the other hand, I finally finished emptying out my kitchen. Right now it’s all sitting in boxes in my new living room (those damn promiscuous boxes). Now you all know why I haven’t posted any pictures yet – all you would see is boxes stacked half way to the ceiling. At first glance the new kitchen looked like it had a lot of cupboard space, but I’m beginning to wonder if I’m going to get it all into the allowed space!
It’s amazing what you find when you haven’t cleaned your cupboards for awhile. I think I have 2 dozen cans of Campbells tomato soup. Now I love tomato soup, and use a lot of it for cooking, but why in the world I would need to keep 24 cans on the shelf I have NO idea. Fortunately there is a large walk-in closet close to the kitchen that Ole will put shelves in and I can have a walk-in pantry.
So my goal today is to get all those kitchen boxes emptied and toss them out on the porch. Then I’ll have to load them all back in my car, take them back to the old house and fill them again. I just thought about that – does that mean I’m contributing to the sexual activity of these boxes by helping them reproduce/refill?
Then I told Ole that I have to take a little break from moving. Christmas Eve is one week from today and I have NOTHING done in preparation. I have a bit of shopping done, but need to finish, then it’s wrapping and since I’m not doing any baking this year I won’t worry about that (haven’t found my pans yet). But I do need to get a Christmas letter of some kind out and that’s also on my agenda today.
I put in a change of address at the post office last week and they informed me that it will take 7 – 10 days for the mail to be forwarded and established at our new address. Meanwhile we have received NO mail at the old address nor have we received anything at the NEW address. And also, did you know that it now costs $1.00 to change your address??? Leave it to the post office – the epitome of functionality and efficiency (snort).
So far I’ve been successful in getting my new telephone service and Internet service installed and was pleased with the customer service that I received from the representatives and the technicians. Just don’t get me started on Direct TV. We had Dish Network previously and were very satisfied. But we’re switching to Direct TV because our phone company offers a bundle for phone service, high speed Internet and Direct TV that is much cheaper than I was paying for all the pieces previously. Direct TV hasn’t even been installed yet and yesterday I was ready to cancel the entire thing.
I really need to speak to a rep on the phone that I can understand. For some reason I feel VERY strongly about that. He spoke so fast and with such an accent I could only understand about 50% of what he said. I asked him very nicely THREE times to please slow down and speak more clearly. Not a thing changed. The FOURTH time I wasn’t so nice. When I got to find out that he was located in the Philippines I demanded to speak to his supervisor. He quickly answered that his supervisor had left 20 minutes ago and there was no one I could talk to. Then I demanded that he transfer me to someone located in the United States. He said he would transfer the call but he couldn’t guarantee that I would get someone in the States as the calls were answered randomly. I said I would take my chances and didn’t get very far as I was transferred to someone in India!! At that point I demanded that they just cancel the entire order so they switched me to customer service and I ended up with someone named Manny from Mexico, but at least I could understand him and he spoke more slowly. AAACCCKKK! So they’re scheduled to come and do an install next Tuesday – not to sound racist, but I certainly hope I can understand them or I won’t be letting them in my house!!
Like Ole says, it takes a lot to make a Norwegian mad, but when they get angry – look out.
Love, Lena
Lena (I realize that is not your actual name), you have a way of talking about your experiences that we can all relate to. I love reading your posts and I am always disappointed when you disappear for awhile. You are right. It takes some time to make a Norwegian upset–but just wait until you do! I wonder if that is ingrained into our DNA. I have always loved Ole and Lena jokes for as long as I can remember. One thing that Norskes can do is to laugh at themselves.
Oh, those nasty boxes! It’s hard to imagine where they all come from, isn’t it? Sounds like you are doing well. I am looking forward to those pictures! Hope you can take a little time out this week and relax and enjoy Christmas. Blessings………
Where I live, the trick callers use to get someone who speaks proper English is to hit the button that says you speak French. Then you just say ‘oops’ to the person at the other end and tell them that you speak only English, and they say okay and then help you. They usually speak perfectly lovely English. I am not aware of having even one racist cell in my body, but I do share your annoyance about support staff who cannot speak proper English. Apparently many companies give their support staff a set of scripts to read that will actually discourage the caller from asking for refunds, etc.