Besides, you ever see a bear with 40-foot feet?

It's Monday evening. The 3-day window for the movers was THIS Thursday-Saturday. They still haven't given us a day. I'm about to lose my mind. Do I have a day left to pack? Three? How insane do I need to be right now?

Plus Yuripants has chewed a back claw down to the nub, the car needed something something CV joint boots replaced, and the Rat's insurance is having fits, which means interfacing with my insurance as secondary insurance is having fits. And if Congress doesn't get its **** in one sock I might not have a job when I get to the East Coast.


But other than that, the play was great.

Plan for Thursday. You're either done on time and have no time to relax or done early with a couple days to relax.

That's what we're going with. Cognitively I can keep the positive in mind: Yuri's foot looks better today; at least we fixed the car now (with a mechanic we trust), and didn't lose a day while we were on the road; at least we HAVE insurance to bitch about; as least I have an awesome job to worry about being furloughed from. I've had a lot of help over the past few month retraining the thinking part of my brain to respond appropriately to situations, but I'm still having the involuntary panic attack symptoms -- episodes of rapid pulse and breathing, flushes of adrenalin, inattention, etc. It's quite annoying and I wish that part would stop.

Insurance is annoying. The BS in Washington is annoying. You're making a huge move, it's ok to stress over sh*t like not knowing when the frakking movers are going to show up.

Hope they contact you tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I channeled my angst into dealing VERY FIRMLY with Comcast. We ordered a self-install kit last week to arrive here by Thursday. Confirmation email says ship to here. Where did it go? Rockville. Where it was returned to the service center for me to make an appointment and stand in line to get it there. NO I WILL NOT! I used my very firm words, told them what I expected them to do, and presto chango they're overnighting it to us here gratis.

Well played, Prudence.

We did the same with a faulty picnic table from LL Bean two days ago. Bean wanted us to pack it up and send it back. That's a packaging job for the pros, plus it would mean spending another 20 min. unscrewing legs. Yeah, not happening.

The upshot: We don't send the faulty table back. We dispose of it here, which is no problem. Bean overnights us another picnic table.

Sometimes, you just gotta explain yourself to Customer Service. Thank you LL Bean for understanding our point of view.

Comcast!!! Noooooo!! Don't do it!!!!! We have FIOS in most areas around here. Did you check? Please check! You NEED to check! Not Comcast, pleaseeee!!!

Oh, we actually plan to do FIOS, we just needed to start with Comcast because we could have that up and running the day we arrive, versus having to make an appointment and wait. Now, as soon as we get there the Rat can start working and we can examine the budget to see whether we can afford TV too, or just internets, and make a FIOS appointment at our leisure. It's all part of the cunning plan!

Meanwhile, my hot streak continues. I needed to move the Uhaul pickup date forward as yes, movers are scheduled to pick-up Thursday. So, I go on line and....change will cost $500. Um, what? It's already the most expensive game in town by a lot (but has a much higher load weight maximum, hence our selectiong). It's now nearly $1K more expensive. So, I call. And the guy says yes, that's really how much it would cost. I say: your competitors are much cheaper. He says he doubts it, but if I get quotes for the same days/miles/size truck, they price match. I quickly get quotes $400+ off the *original* quote, for pick-up tomorrow, even. Call back. Woman asks if I would consider keeping our reservation with uhaul if they match it. I say: sure! And presto-chango, saved not only the $500 they tried for but an additional $426 off the original reservation. Because I am on FIRE!