Now that I am not so distracted by the mess also known as my home, I am finally around to updating this blog. We now reside in an actual house that is our own: Yea!!! However, it is not at the lovely Japanese home that I had found and was in the painful process of finalizing the paperwork for. No, I didn't get to let heads roll in full shock and awe... turns out it was quite behoving that I did not.
The Tuesday after Memorial Day, I went about business in more humbled, and dignified manner. Over the course of the long weekend, I discovered that there was just one paper that we did need from the ship, signed by the head cheese after all... yeah, there's another one of those minor changes that have been put into place since we last here in Japan oh-so many years ago--hello?... After printing out the afore mentioned paper (at the library of course, we don't have our stuff.. duh!), I take it to Housing and while they are entering our info into the computer to print out the next set of paperwork I had to take to a splendid place called PSD (personnel support detachment), our on base housing agent runs up from the back of half of the office, to the front counter where me and my entourage are waiting; all out of breath she breaths, Sailorman's name then mine in the wonderfully complicated manner that only those with non Germanic/Latin language roots could do to very non Asian root names. She asks if we have already signed the housing contract and lease yet? No we are getting the money request together now, I say. "I have a house to offer you, on base."
Pause--"REALLY," I reply in a guttural, semi-stupefied, shocked tone. "No, seriously, really?" She nods her head and smiles all excitedly. All I could say was, "wow. Really?!" "Hai, yes I do. A townhouse on base." Of all the words I know all I could say was, "wow. Okay, on base; wow!" My verbal record was skipping due to me fighting back the maniacal laughter that was threating to emerge past my lips. Why, well, we were definitely on borrowed time. You are alloted 30 day stay at the Navy lodge here, on your 20th day you must submit a request thought three different sources, then pray that there space available for you to stay in the lodge. Now we were getting into the full swing of the PCS season and on our 30th day, we were approved with a hitch--there were only 6 days available at the Navy lodge, and we had yet to find a home. Bring it on baby! While waiting for our 30 day extension, we found a home but it was taken already by another perspective renter, in a very rare, yet once in a long while mix up that occurs when an owner who allows the primary housing agency to use their lesser agency to find a renter while the original agency also plies the same house, then they don't talk to each other. Yeah, we were the ones to experience that, bunches-o fun, let me tell you! The house that I posted under Japan Home (or something like that), we were in the process of getting when we were hit with the on base housing option. The Unfortunates and I had only 2 days left before finding out whether or not the lodge had more days available to us. Keep in mind that we were still in the paperwork process of requesting money from the Navy to afford to move in to the Japanese house, once this is turned into PSD it take anywhere from 3-6 days for the money to be approved then wired into your account.
Well, by time we made this far and offered the townhouse, I was just... yeah,.. not only were my own worries afield, but I had to field Sailorman's rants, worries and frustrations via satellite phone since he was whisked away to a tin cup in the middle of some pond. (love ya Babe! Remember don't let them see you puke, 'cause YOU ARE THE MAN--SAILORMAN!!!) I couldn't go and have a break from it all via my beloved Aikido, due to one of the plates in my arm (and that is a whole new mess of a piss pile story there--gotta love the Navy!); the girls were really feeling the crush of moving to a new place with plenty of kids but they all are sectioned off with their little clicks, they still had no home, Papa was gone, and the Oldest Unfortunate was really feeling it. And there was Suicide-girl who came to Japan weighing 56lbs, and was a mere 46lbs and dropping. For a greyhound this is really bad and she still had several months left of her quarantine (which must be finished out Stateside, Japanese kennel, on base kennel, or on base housing we knew no-one to take her home for us on base). We were about to take on another loan that we REALLY could do without, I wanted friends and Studman back too, so he could sit in misery with me--not working to death on the tin cup. So..., by time we were offered this house, we looked at it, Sailor man pulled into Sasebo and called on the cell phone 1hr later, told him what had transpired and we took the home. We moved in one day later and silently thanked the 2 people ahead of us on the housing list who turned down the house.
It worked out.
I shall post pictures later, when it is not 01:30 and 08:00 I have my 6 mos dental cleaning. I must stop getting to bed this late.
No comments:
Post a Comment