Gosh darn it...

Car-wise it got better, but then got worse. I spoke to the guy I ordered the parts from and he said he would send out replacements right away. They arrived yesterday. It seemed like things were back on track. Unfortunately, the parts were very poor used quality. The windshield-washer pumps seized up and the drive-belt pulley was just as noisy as the one already in the car. I asked the mechanic if it might be a wiring problem that is toasting the pumps. He said he did not have them connected to the car's electricity but to an external "probe". So, I told him to forget about the drive-belt pulley and just order the pumps new. The only crucial problems were the windshield washer and the AC. Still don't know if the AC is working because he hasn't put in the part yet. We're hoping and praying that at least THAT will work. Unfortunately, this means the car won't go into the paper until next week, midweek, putting us further behind. If I were a cartoon character, I would have several exclamation points hovering over my head.

---

We had a bit of a crisis the other day. Well, not really a crisis, but just a period of uncertainty about our move. We had notified our landlord on Thursday morning by e-mail that we would be vacating at the end of June. We worded it as though we were asking permission because it was a year lease, but he had told us we had the option of getting out of it after 6 months (a verbal agreement between us, though). He replied that legally we were obliged to give TWO months notice to get out of the contract, but that it was OK because they should be able to lease it to someone else rather easily.

This made us a little concerned that he would have good cause to keep our £565 deposit if it wasn't rented by the time we left. Our landlord in Arizona (by the same name as this one) was a nice fellow -- we thought -- but he ended up taking our $1200 deposit through some creative math. Since he legally could have gotten away with making us pay the remaining months of our lease, we had no choice but to say OK. Anyway, back to our current situation... this fear made us question our timing for moving to Denmark. Should we push it to the end of July? Or if we're pushing it one month, should we maybe push it to September so that we have a "clean break"? Lots of intricate factors, which I won't go into because it's way too complicated to write out, were weighed and re-weighed. Things were suddenly up in the air and we weren't sure what to do. K talked to her mom and got some advice: to keep our original goal, there is nothing to gain by waiting around in England.

We decided to take that advice, but wanted to check the deposit thing with the landlord. K e-mailed back and asked flat-out if he would keep our deposit if the apartment wasn't rented out by July 1. Thankfully, he replied that he would not charge us more than the months we are actually here and as long as the apartment is left in good order, we will get our deposit back. He said we had been good tenants, so he had no reason to be strident. What a good bloke!

So, we're still on track with that anyway.

---

But just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water... K finds several disconcerting discussions on-line about Denmark. Comments by people who hate it there. Things like "no jobs", "highest taxes in the world", "don't like foreigners", etc. Or this guy's long tirade.

We know it's silly to change our minds because "we read some stuff" (and we haven't actually changed our minds), but our resolve has been severely challenged. The "period of uncertainty" has returned ten-fold.

-RP-