clueless and sick and tired of it

When we moved to Texas, away from the support of family and friends, we learned how to make do on our own. We've always considered ourselves to be self-reliant. After all, we Americans pride ourselves on that... reading Emerson in high school ! And some would say that Texans take self-reliance and independence to a whole new level. Maybe we have been Texans too long.

I am really tired of being helpless and clueless.
- When our apartment reeked of the smell of burnt wiring, we called 2 repair people. Neither called us back. I told Mdme Helleputte about it and she said she would give us the number of the apartment manager. She never did. So here we are, one month later and still in the dark.

-When Paul was given the name of a driving school, he called them to schedule classes. He got an answering machine. He called back every single day of that first week and left a message and has not heard from them and it's been three weeks.

-Paul went to another driving school near our house. They refused to sign him up telling him that he can simply turn in his Texas license for a French one. (We know this to NOT be true.) They didn't want to hear it, and obviously didn't want his 1000 bucks.

And here's the story that has me screaming for help only to learn that nobody's listening.

About three weeks ago we bought an antique farinier. (a flour cabinet ... more on that later) Obviously we couldn't carry it home in our little bitty toy car so we arranged for delivery. Three weeks passed... no delivery... not even a call.. until last Friday. They said they would deliver on lundi matin a huit heures. Monday morning at 8 o'clock. How hard is that? I knew that much French when I was 6 years old. If I didn't understand anything else, I did understand that. I even wrote it down (in French).

Monday morning 8 am came, no sign of them. At 9 am, no sign of them. You get the picture. So around 5 pm I got a phone call. It was in French of course and I (very wrongly) assumed it was the furniture delivery people. Anyway... the phone call was about whether or not I would be here at 9 am on Tuesday. (Mardi matin a neuf heures.) Ok.... I got that one too. Wrote that one down too.

Tuesday morning at 8 am I had my hair in curlers and was getting dressed when the doorbell rang. Holy smokes.. I thought... they said they were coming at 9. Whatever. So they came in, delivered the furniture and I paid them and I was happy. I just supposed that they came early. Beh noh!!!

I then left the apartment on Tuesday morning around 8:45 to go to the market. When I returned, there was a notice in the mailbox that said that the people who were supposed to check the chimney had come at 9:17 and I wasn't home. Check the chimney??? Huh? The note also said we had to call them to schedule another appointment. Merde! (Shit).

OK so I made Paul call them since OBVIOUSLY my French isn't good enough to get it. They told him that we would have to pay because we weren't there and in typical french style, Paul was curtly reprimanded. The new apointment was for 3pm Wednesday.

The chimney guy showed up on time. Good for him. And he asked for my ladder. I thought about being snitty and telling him I had no ladder. Anyway... the charge for this incident was 147.31 euros!!!

...clueless, sick and tired of it... and broke.