Final Items on "To Do" List

Well, the long almost never ending story about getting the last document certified has a happy ending..... we now have both of our Social Security Pension Letters certified by the Washington DC Ecuadorian Consul.  Ed's over night trip there was worth the extra cost and hassle to get them in our hands.  Ed showed up at 9:00am on Monday (Sept. 16th)  morning and meet with Carlos Farfan.  He looked over the papers and everything was in order and told Ed it would take about 20 minutes.  He suggested that Ed go have a cup of coffee and told him were the cafe was located.  Ed said the difference between the Consul in Miami and DC are just worlds apart - in fact they could not be more different.

When Ed walked into the DC consul he was greeted by a friendly receptionist sitting at a desk - not behind a glass wall with a tiny hole to take through.  Ed got meet Marco, who stood and greeted him and introduced myself and shook hands, while in Miami the lady never greeted us nor introduced herself.

The other night I had a dream that the lady in Miami was removed from her position and demoted.  When we walked into the Immigrations office in Cuenca, she was standing behind the desk and was the person who was going to hand our residency paperwork!  Talk about having a nightmare! 

The other big item on our "To Do" list was selling Ed's Volvo XC90 (the large 7 passenger SUV).  We thought we had it sold to a friend but he changed his mind just before our original departure date.  Since, we had this additional time, we made a full effort to get it sold.  Ed drove it to the Tampa Volvo dealership to see what they could offer.  The price they offered was so low that Ed drove it home. 

Ed placed an ad in the Tampa newspaper that ran on Friday, Saturday & Sunday of this past week.  The paper made a mistake in printing of the ad and it read the car had only 8,000 miles not 80,000.  So, many of the calls were people just checking on the mileage.  Ed called the paper but the mistake was never corrected during the run.  We did have several very interested people wanting to see the car.   But, none of they were interested in driving out to Sun City to view it.  So, we took the top three people and made arrangements to meet them near the airport yesterday morning. 

Our 10:30am meeting was with a guy from upstate New York.  He was looking for a car that could handle with winters and last 2 to 3 years up there.  He was down in Tampa on business settling his father-in-laws estate.  There were some items out of the house he wanted to take back to his wife.  So, he test drove the car and liked that Ed had put on new tires the day before ($850) and bought the car with cash!  It was $700 lower than our price but we liked the guy and know he'll take care of the car.  That was one major item off the list that is completed and we can cancel the car insurance!

Just as we think we have completed our "To Do" list, something gets added to it that we didn't expect.  We learned yesterday from an American living in Cuenca and going through their residency process now, that we will need two addition marriage certificates that have been apostilled.  So, today we have to write away for two certified copies from the state of Virginia.  They will then have to be sent to our daughter in Ohio.  She then will have to return them with a check to the Secretary of State in Virginia to get them both apostilled.  She will then express mail them to us in Cuenca.  We will not need these for a month after our arrival, thank heavens!  The Ecuadorian Immigration Office just changed their requirements recently and we can get on top of this before we leave the country.

So, we are down to just four days before our flight.  Last night I read an article about American Airlines and many of their pilots are calling in sick.  The problem they are having with the pilots is causing many of their flights to be delayed or canceled.  So, our next problem will be when & IF our flight departs on Sept. 24th.  I guess you'll just have to stay tuned for that story.

Peggy