The Ultimate Frustration!

 So our puzzles have been sitting down in Miami and we've been getting one excuse after the other as to why they haven't arrived. George got a call from the UK shipper and was told we owe close to $8000 in duty.  This is odd.  Puzzles have no duty.  

I had him call down to Miami and get the scoop. Turns out, the shipping company, or the container company made a mistake and put the 2 containers on 2 different ships. There was one Bill of Lading so the puzzles had to stay in a bonded warehouse while we waited 2 weeks for the others to arrive.  In the mean time, we are stuck paying storage fees.  This was no fault of ours, but because of someones incompetence, our puzzles are being held hostage until we pay the ransom. This is absolutely a rip off. While I don't believe we should have to pay for someone else's mistake, we have no choice but to pay. If we don't, the puzzles will be confiscated.  Now we wait to get the bloody bill and hand over the cash.

This irritates me because I was calling and getting one excuse after the other about what was going wrong.  The only upside?  I've unboxed all but the disentanglement puzzles and the ceramic plates.  Our great room is empty again and awaiting the arrival of more puzzles.  

Let's make the week even worse. We have a sinkhole in the driveway at Puzzle Palace.  When the drain cleaners came by to do their work, they damaged the concrete holding the grate.  This caused a hole in the side of the sewer drain and all of the limestone and sand under our driveway washed away with the next big rain.  All is under control now, but it was just adding insult to injury.  

I'll be glad when the rest of the puzzles arrive.  I'm tired of waiting, and I'm tired of the uncertainty.  **Update** we were now told they will arrive on Friday.  How did this happen?  We paid the ransom.  On the bright side, at least we get to sleep in our own bed for the week.

In the mean time, we have devised a geolocation system for the house so now each puzzle can be found by name, and location.  This should help with the cataloguing and storage of the puzzles.  It took George and I about 2 hours to label the great room.  If we do one room a day, we will be done quickly and can then go on to opening and storing the puzzles. I'll head over this week and finish up the labeling of the ground floor.  The upstairs will have to wait until we get more shelves in or until after the puzzles have been unboxed.  

And my office desk has finally been cleaned...