Kangaroo Boxing and Other Amazing Things

I just spent 30 minutes composing a post, was in the process of reviewing in, hit the back button, and lost the whole thing. But alas, this is nothing.

Wednesday morning we went to meet the container guy at the house. Melvin, the driver, is the original "Fat Albert." He is a huge black man with a wonderful deep and gravely voice. Melvin had driven all night from Phoenix to get to our house by 8:00 AM, Wednesday morning. Tim and I arrived before 9:00 to meet the moving guys.... and then it was 10:00.... and then it was 11:00..... After many irate calls to the shipping company and lots of "they're on their way," they're 40 minutes north of town," "they are in "Sirocco" and 10 minutes from your house." (She didn't realize that any place in "Sirocco" is 10 minutes from our house.) The moving boss in Las Vegas, Nevada even told me they were just about to turn into our driveway.

THEY NEVER ARRIVED.

After providing Melvin with some sustenance from MacDonalds, and with much convincing from several "players" in this drama, he was convinced to spend the night at the Roadrunner truck stop in Lemitar. Melvin would arrive Thursday morning at 8:00 AM - which he did. We were told that another mover was being dispatched from somewhere, but noone seemed to know when they would arrive at the house. Melvin waited. Tim and I waited. And finally, in the early afternoon, the calvary arrived in the form of Richard Mora and two helpers from Duke City Movers in Albuquerque. Now these guys are pros. They packed that mammoth 40 foot container in less than two hours and arranged it so that nothing would shift in transit. (Note: one of the movers actually boxed a kangeroo in a circus!)

Finally, our belongings were on their way to Phoenix and then to Long Beach, California for a leisurely trip across the ocean to our new home (Austria is landlocked isn't it?).

So.... our belongings are on their way and the dogs made it to the quarantine station near Sydney (I doubt they are very happy with me). Mica is at Robyn and Tom's house and is doing as well as can be expected - a bit confused, but she likes Tom and Robyn a lot.

So... you would think, "COOL, Tim and Judi are on their way." We even got notice that the package with my x-rays had reached their destination. Wow, everything is finally coming together.

Think again.

Any guesses on what could go wrong now? We received an e-mail from Dan, our friendly immigration agent, who said that he would release our visas as soon as he received the x-rays - which he did, receive them I mean. He wrote that he was trying to release the visas, but the electronic system was down - and it was Friday afternoon with several hours to quitting time. He told us he would see what he could do.

Update, Friday morning Socorro time, Holiday Inn Express. We haven't heard from Dan.