Is it a Full Moon? Nope, Just Harvest!

Yesterday was just one of those days.  I should have known it was going to be one of those days as soon as I woke up, for one reason.

It's the first day of (custom) harvest.  That always brings challenges no matter how prepared you THINK you are.

First, Adam calls before I'm even out of bed.  Not a good sign.  He informs me that in all the excitement of getting started with harvest, he forgot to take the car to Havana to get fixed.  So I need to drive out to the field, pick up our farm hand and the car, and make sure everything gets taken care of.  No big deal, right?  That's my "job" since I work for him. 

In case the mere fact that it's the first day of harvest was not indicative enough that something would go wrong, I make it 10 feet out of the driveway and immediately have to pull over because there is a HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE taking up the entire road. 

WHERE THE HELL AM I?!?! 

This isn't even one of those nice, pretty, white horse drawn carriages like you see in downtown St. Louis.  No.  This is a one bench-er, driven by two women who, at first glance, I thought were Amish.  That would explain their desperate need for "Pimp My Ride" and their long hair.  But they weren't wearing skirts.  And upon further inspection, I realized they were most likely just "ridge rich." 

I'm also beginning to wonder if they are the owners of this "vehicle" I spotted last week at Larry's. 

For my city friends, imagine if the "carriage" in the first picture was tipped forwards.  Now can you see where the horse would be tied, and the bench where the owners would sit?  Notice the cooler.  CLASSY!  The second photo is the horse that pulls said "carriage." 

The "day o' fun" was not over, though.  When I went to pick up the car, I found out our other farm hand was stuck at the popcorn plant because the plant broke down, and the trucker who was supposed to be helping us out since our Penske semi wasn't available yet, brought one truck instead of two.  Awesome.

By the time I got back home, Adam's calling again saying now our semi is available, so come back to the field, pick up our driver, go to the insurance agent's office to pick up the paperwork and head to East Peoria to pick up the truck.  Again, this shouldn't be a big deal.  We've done it before and will do it again every year.  It's part of harvest.

Wrong.  We get to the agent's office and not only is she not there, but she has a new secretary who has never been through harvest before.  So the agent left her secretary to do the dirty work which, in this case, meant dealing with the paperwork and informing us that for the first time ever, they are requiring us to drive the semi back from East Peoria to their office so they can take a picture of it.  Um...what?  I asked if I could just take a picture on my Blackberry and send it to the agent directly, either by text or email.  I even asked if I could just take a photo on my digital camera and send it to the agent directly.  No.  Why?  Because she has to download it directly from HER camera.  Ooook.  Remind me again HOW they think a semi is going to park in a parking lot that has exactly 4 spaces and nowhere to turn around? 

We arrive at the Penske office and walk in, joking about how smoothly things had gone so far, and wondering what we were walking into this year.  God bless the man working the main desk at Penske.  That phone did not stop ringing long enough for him to hang up with one person and walk 3 steps to the fax machine.  When it finally did stop ringing, what do you know?  Our agent sent the wrong paperwork.  AGAIN.  Last year, Adam and I both had to argue with her before finally Penske got on the phone and convinced her that she was wrong.  This year, I just let the Penske man handle it himself. 

*NOTE TO ALL FARMERS: If you are renting a truck, please make sure your insurance agent knows the difference between "proof of insurance" and "certificate of insurance."  They are NOT the same thing. *

Our driver and I waited for 2 hours.  Nothing.  No fax, no phone call, nothing.  Finally, I called the agent's office only to find that she was in a meeting and her poor secretary had no idea what to do without talking to the agent.  So we continued to wait.  At 3:56, the fax finally comes in with our correct paperwork.  The office closes at 4:00.  I didn't know whether to call and scream at the agent for being such a moron, or get down on my knees and praise Jesus that we got the paperwork at all.

As far as I know, they still haven't gotten their precious picture of the semi.  Hope that's not too important.  I wonder if people realize that every time they jerk us around, every unnecessary phone call we have to make, every time we have to wait around for someone else to DO THEIR JOB, it's costing us money.  R-E-S-P-E-C-T, yo.