Power of Attorney 2: To Beuel and Back

So, those happy few of you who follow this blog are aware I have been attempting to make it clear to the officials at the DMV that I am fine with selling my eight year old car back in the US. This week, on attempt number two, I had to wait out a German Federal holiday, wait for an Apostille who needs 24 hours to staple one form to another, find a place that will actually ship next day air, make my way to a fairly removed UPS facility across the Rhein and mail my package.

After this journey, much to my amazement I found myself paying less money for the one day delivery than I had paid DHL for a two day delivery the previous week. Suddenly, things seemed like they were finally going my way. As I began my journey back to my office from the shipping depot in Beuel, I had an extra spring in my step feeling proud of the efficiency and service provided by a true 'Merican company. As I walked, it felt so nice to be free of the burden of said document and my heart was bursting with patriotic pride. It seemed to me nothing could go wrong.

Then today happened. After nervously checking the UPS tracking site at regular intervals all morning during breaks from editing a paper I am working on with my sponsor here about a KdV equation, finally something showed that there had been a failed delivery at 10:11 AM. I called my wife, who had been sitting at home with the apartment owner all morning waiting for the delivery. I asked her to call the company, which she did and proceeded to verify the address, the recipients, and the phone number for delivery. Believe me, after last week, I was not missing any more 4's. The agent she talked to refused to call the driver directly and said we would just have to wait for tomorrow's delivery. So, I called the company again and actually found a rather friendly individual named Ricardo who told me all I had to do was request a "same day will call" service, which would allow the package to be picked up this evening.

So, I continued to edit and attempted to function all day just steaming at the thought of this package not being delivered and being terrified that despite double checking, I had somehow mislabeled the package. Anyway, after several traded phone calls, the will call service was arranged and Amber finally picked up the package this evening around 6:30 PM Eastern.

Needless to say, she asked for an explanation why the delivery had failed. Apparently the driver, rather than going to the address on the package, had seen an apartment complex of the same name as the road and simply assumed it went there. Upon being unable to find the correct apartment number, despite the fact that there was clearly NOT an apartment number on the address, he merely assumed it was mislabeled and went on instead of actually looking for the correct street address. So, though it is also needless to say, my patriotic pride was somewhat abated by the incident. In the end, you get what you pay for I suppose. True, DHL may take a little bit longer out of the gate, but at least their drivers are literate and education costs money.

However, the bottom line is that Amber has the form, which was actually provided by the DMV this time to avoid any further difficulties. The meeting is for 9 AM tomorrow. I cannot wait to see just what goes wrong this time. Any bets from those of you out there?

My only solace is that this weekend I am hitching a ride with some friends to Belgium. Hopefully, the inordinately strong beer, rich chocolate and delicious fries will help my rage subside. Plus, I am really pulling for Roger Federer to win the French Open this weekend. It is the only one he has never won, and I for one hate to see someone come so close to something great and missing by a hair. Hopefully his luck will fare better than mine.