Tired of the Rigmarole

I'm sorry that this post might be a bit offensive to some. Or a bit of a downer. But I just have to get this off my chest.

If you are in need of happy banter, please tune back tomorrow, when I will attempt to return to my fairly cheery ways.

I am just not feeling very positive in response to the moving process, and I've got to get it on "paper." Both JB and I are so tired of all the run-around we are getting from everyone. I am actually having difficulty, describing in words, how incredibly frustrated we have both become in dealing with red tape and government agencies and people who don't seem to want to help us.

I avoid, nearly always, discussion of politics on my blog. But since I am feeling a bit feisty today, let me say this.

If you think socialized programs run by our government are a good idea, you should try moving to another country with government agencies helping you accomplish that.

While there are exceptions, the general rule is that, the majority of people we are in conversation with on the phone are only looking at their sliver of the pie. They don't want to help us that much because, quite frankly, there really isn't anything in it for them to do so. And often times, they don't know more than their sliver of the pie. They don't want to bend at all because they need to follow their rules. And when they are tired of us, they bop us to another place and tell us that this other place will know the answers we are seeking. Which isn't often the case.

Here is just a quick glance into our current worldview.

Last night, JB was wading through the 300-page pile (not an exaggeration either) of papers giving us instruction for our departure. This morning he found the one about dropping our van off at the port in Baltimore. It says we need a copy of our title for the van.

We don't have a copy of our title. They are electronic now. So while it exists online, it isn't in our hands.

The problem is, like all the obstacles we've encountered, that no one can tell us for sure if we need a copy or if not having one is a problem. And no one can tell us for sure how to fix the problem we are having.

JB left the house at 7:30 this morning. At 1:30 this afternoon he had finally got the bottom of the title issue after going to the local Honda dealership and a local title company. This was after being told he would need to get a new Florida driver's license. No scratch that. Another person told him that he could just request the title but it would have to be shipped to our current address (which is in Turkey). There were no exceptions to this rule even though the title being shipped to Turkey would do us no good. Then he was told that he didn't need a title at all. Just registration. (Our registration is currently on its way to Turkey, accidentally, so that is out.)

I'll spare you the rest of the details. He finally got our bank to write a letter stating that we/they owned the van, and that we had permission to take it to Turkey. That being said, we can't be sure, even now, that this will suffice.

Oh and on another note, Honda charged us $180 for a new key for our van. Which we had to have because the port requires two copies of our keys to ship our van! And because I lost my keys during the move, we were at the mercy of Honda to give us another set.

Give me a moment to share just one more example.

Back to Scrubs.

We have an appointment for Scrubs three hours from my parents' house right before we leave for Baltimore. But then, yesterday, we received an email from the Vet Tech in Turkey saying that this was not necessary. That we could just go to a local private vet and get a copy of the health certificate and that we didn't need it to be stamped by the FDA in Tallahassee or driven to Miami.

So I called a Vet here in South Florida, and she told me, in short, that what I was asking them to do was illegal! Illegal? What? I told her that I assured her, I didn't want her to do anything illegal, but that I had been told that we didn't need the FDA stamp to get into Turkey, and we therefore didn't have to drive the three hours to go to a military base because a local vet could do it. She said this was impossible. She said, and I quote, "If I had ten thousand dollars for every time someone told me that a dog was left in the port because they were told the wrong thing, I could pay off my house."

That was comforting.

When I shared this with JB, he told me to just forget it. That he didn't care what we were told from anyone else. He was taking the dog to the base three hours away. He was so tired of the rigmarole. I was so tired of the rigmarole.

JB was supposed to study today, and instead he spent nearly half a day trying to figure out how to get our van shipped to Turkey. Which we thought we already knew. And then a new saga with the dog.

Seriously. I mean, I'm not trying to brag, but I believe that JB and I are both of at least average to maybe slightly-higher-than-average intelligence. So the question is, if we are having trouble getting all this done, how much more trouble is a young enlisted guy right out of boot camp having?

And why does it have to be so difficult?

Why can't there be just one person who answers all our questions and tells us exactly what we need?

Rigmarole.

Thanks for letting me vent.

P.S. If you choose to leave a comment disagreeing with anything I say in this post, please make sure you remember my two rules for comments. If your comment could be considered bothersome, it is only fair you sign your name, as I have on this post. Also, please speak kindly. Thanks.