Started out with a good plan this morning, leave work at 11 to go up to Long Beach and pick up a moped that my mom had shipped back from Thailand. Sure, no problem mom. After a couple of calls yesterday to the shipping company, I found that I needed to clear customs first in Long Beach, then take the clearance paperwork to the shipping company in Compton and pick up the 400 pound package from Torrance. Sheesh, this is sounding like a bit of work. Oh well, I’m the good son.
So Heather and I head out and the skies open up and it’s raining cats and horses and as usual with California, traffic ground to a screaming halt. 3 hours later, I’m on the 8th floor of the customs building chatting with a couple of customs agents with the bill of landing, arrival and the packing slip in hand (which the shipping guy said was all the paperwork that I needed). The nice customs folk, after looking over this small stack of paperwork (yes they were very nice about it) said I also need the bill of sale and information on the model. So I call my mom get her to fax what she has. The 5 pages pop out and they look at it for a minute then bring it to me and say, “We can’t use this, it’s in Thai, you’ll need to get it translated, notarized and then have the moped certified by DOT before picking it up”
Good grief, what a way to spend one of my last Fridays in the states!
So, I leave defeated with my tail between my legs and we take PCH all the way back down the coast (it was much faster then the parking lot that 405 had become on a Friday afternoon). Made a stop for for Thai food at a place called Your House Restaurant on the way.
Got home and my roommate’s welcome home party was going full swing (not my going away party because I wasn't supposed to be home). We passed our greetings and went upstairs to watch the new Doctor Who in the SciFi channel. We’ll go back down afterwards.
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