Loaner Furniture For General Officers Only

I just had to share this. A friend of mine's husband has been commuting long distances to work lately. They got orders for his new position here, but there has been a wait for housing. Imagine that. So, she's been bringing him the two hours up here, dropping him off, getting errands done and then going back home to her idyllic life on Lake Constance. This is repeated every week he is not TDY, ie out of town on business. Well, it is finally getting close to the time they are supposed to move, so she thought she would make some arrangements. Luckily for them, there will be housing available for a door-to-door move, and right across the street from me! Right now, there is an unaccompanied General Officer living in their quarters. He would've gotten a nice house when he first arrived, that they reserve for generals only, but since he was here without his family, he thought it wouldn't be right for him to take up a whole house....so he is in stairwell living with the rest of us drones. My friend left most of their belongings in the States, so she has to rely on government loaner furniture mostly. So here's the kicker.

She made arrangements with the housing office's furnishings department, to coordinate this loaner furniture. She was able to find out what was already in the apartment.....obviously the man had everything loaned to him, as he traveled light all by himself. The furnishings lady kept saying, you'd have to make an appointment to first pick up the furniture, and then have the furniture you want delivered. But...she said....isn't that a waste of time and the government's money? Can't I just keep the things I want? No, this is not how we do things here. Okay then, how about you leave the bed, the coffee table and the dining room table and chairs. The furnishings lady replied that oh no...we absolutely can't do that...you see....the dining room table is for general officers only. Well, I'll be..... Now I have it in my mind to peek in his window, just to see what that stuff looks like and how different it is from my loaner dining room table. But I think I'll hold off...I don't want to get arrested for being a peeping Tom. I can just see the arrest report on my husband's desk tomorrow morning!