http://www.ComputerBob.com/journal_archive/2003/12.php .
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Busy, busy, busy! As of late last night, I'm finally back online from my own home in the Sunshine State. I'll write much more about my latest adventures when I have time, later today.
UPDATE: On December 21, I arrived back in the Frostbite State. Less than an hour later, we picked up the rental truck and drove it home. Then, our neighbors, Don and Barb, helped us pack it for two hours. It's a good thing that Don and Barb showed up, because the (irresponsible) college student who had agreed to help us pack our truck for $20 per hour, called to say that she was tied up, but could make it 90 minutes later than we had arranged. We told her to forget it. After packing the truck, we took Don and Barb to Old Country Buffet and also tried to pay them, but they refused to accept any money for their hard work.
On December 22, we took the rental truck back to the rental place, to get the car-transport trailer and load our second car onto it. Then we drove to the Chicago area without any problems. That night, we stayed at my parents' home. My sister and her husband arrived from Southern Illinois to visit for a couple of hours, then they drove back home.
On December 23, we drove to Clarksville, Tennessee, which turned out to be a 490-mile drive, not the 410 miles that our road atlas had indicated. The 20-something woman behind the counter at the motel fell in love with Max, our miniature dachshund. She picked him up, started hugging and kissing him, and declared, "If I had this little guy at home, I'd be a-lovin' and a-huggin' and a-kissin' and a-squeezin' on him all the day long."
On December 24, we drove to Macon, Georgia. We hit our first of 3 separate Atlanta traffic jams about 20 miles north of Atlanta. For some unknown reason, Atlanta repeatedly turns the right 2 lanes of its 5 southbound interstate lanes into "exit only" lanes, forcing 5 lanes of traffic to squeeze into 3 lanes. Then, past the exit, they open it back up to 5 lanes, only to squeeze it back into 3 lanes another mile or two further.
It was in Atlanta traffic that we had two separate close calls. At one point, while we were going about 65 miles per hour, what must have been a drunk driver in a van, came up from behind as though we were standing still, slamming on his brakes at the last second before he would've smashed right into the back of my wife's car. He spent the next mile or so, weaving in and out of the lanes on either side of his, before finally passing us and disappearing in the distance. Our second close call happened when a car that had been stopped on the shoulder of the interstate, suddenly pulled onto the road right in front of me. I had to slam on my brakes to keep from plowing right over it with my moving truck and towed car-transport trailer.
On December 25, we arrived in the Sunshine State, late in the afternoon. I called Jim and Linda from about 30 miles away from our rented mobile home, to tell them that we were on our way. When we arrived at our mobile home park, they had pulled into the park about 10 seconds in front of us. They helped us unload our truck, and return the truck and trailer to the local rental place. Then, we all went to their house, where Linda had prepared an entire turkey dinner. Yum!
From December 26-30, the weather was perfect, sunny and in the 70s (F) every day, and keep-the-windows-open cool every night, as we completed a thousand major and minor different details to help complete our move, including:
Here's some free advice for anyone who's thinking of moving to a different state:
It's a good thing that I don't go back to work until next Monday, January 5th. I have no idea how anyone who is
working full-time ever has the time to do all of the tasks that we've done in the past week. Yet, despite
all of the hassles that we went through, and after all is said and done, the most important thing to remember
is that my wife, my pets, my cars, and I are now all officially Floridians, and I really love this place!
Yesterday, Jim and Linda took me to the beach and drove me around for some siteseeing. Among many other interesting things, we saw dolphins swimming together in the Gulf of Mexico, and the replica of the famous mutiny ship, The Bounty, that was used in the old Humphrey Bogart movie of the same name. Having spent the past 17+ years in the Frostbite State, it's a real treat to see houses and buses and businesses painted in colors like coral and aquamarine and pink and blue, with paintings and murals of dolphins, colorful fish, manatees, and other sea creatures adorning the sides of buildings. It's clear to me that the Sunshine State was designed for fun, in stark contrast to the plain vanilla Frostbite State, which was built for guilt.
Today, Linda worked at her job all day, so Jim and I ran some errands and worked on a few minor jobs around their house. Tonight, we all watched a video of the hilarious 1970's Barbra Streisand movie, What's Up, Doc?
Tomorrow, I return to the Frostbite State, see my wife and pets for the first time in several
days, pack up the moving truck, and then try to get some sleep before beginning our
1625-mile move the next morning. Chances are, I will be incommunicado from now until some
time after our arrival back in the Sunshine State on Christmas Day, so for those of you
who believe as I do, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and for those who don't
believe as I do, I wish you Happy Holidays.
Today was my first day of work at my new job (and also my last day of work until after the two weeks of paid Christmas Break that start tomorrow). It took an entire hour to drive the 25 miles to work through moderate rush-hour traffic. Then I spent my first 5 hours of work in an employee orientation class, watching H.R. videos and filling out forms. At one point, the older woman who had to verify my U.S. citizenship was studying my drivers license, looking for my drivers license number. I pointed it out to her, then told her that the 007 at the end of my drivers license number indicates that I have a license to kill. With a wry smile, she said, "I've heard about you. You're a card." A few minutes later, she introduced me to one of her coworkers, saying, "He's a card." About 1:30 this afternoon, I met my new boss and coworkers for the very first time. My new boss, Mike, asked me, "Did you cut your hair?" I said, "Yes." With a tone of disappointment, he said, "Why'd you do that?" Mike and I are going to get along great. He's a tall, very handsome, very intelligent, very athletic-looking man, who has been known to visit this Web site.
After meeting the gang, we all went out for lunch together. When we got back to work, I went back to the H.R. Department and finished filling out my medical and dental insurance forms. Then Mike introduced me to several important people at the college. After that, I spent more than an hour on a long distance call with my highly organized and efficient predecessor in the job, discussing the first few sections of the excellent and extensive departmental procedures notebook that she had created. I learned that my new job has many important responsibilities, and that I'm responsible for nearly all of them. Then, Mike and I discussed network security for awhile before I left to go home, 9.5 hours after I had arrived.
Less than 2 blocks from the college, dead tired, and with less than 2 seconds to decide, I took
a wrong fork in the road and instantly found myself in strange and exotic neighborhoods
that I had never seen before. Luckily, my brother-in-law, Jim, had given me a map book of
the city, so after wandering a few miles without seeing anything even remotely familiar,
I finally pulled over and
figured out where I was. Armed with that information, I immediately started heading in what
I later determined to be the exact opposite direction of where I wanted to go. It was dark
by then, so I could only see a few of the landmarks that I had made mental notes of during
yesterday afternoon's "dry run" to my work with Jim and Linda. I eventually found my way,
but, without any traffic at all,
it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get back to Jim and Linda's house,
where I called my wife to tell her all about my first day of work. Then, Jim, Linda and I
went out to a nice Italian restaurant and had way too much to eat.
Today, Linda was very sweet to drive me all around the area all day. After seeing it for the first time, I signed the papers and paid for our rented "mobile mansion." The mobile home community itself looks very clean and "groomed," with ponds, waterfalls, and sculpted bushes, plus a laundry building, a heated pool, a jacuzzi, and a community room with nightly activities. Our mobile home certainly doesn't compare to a house, but it is by far the cleanest, newest, nicest-looking mobile home that I've ever been inside of or considered renting. It was immaculately clean, with all new counter tops and with new appliances that still had the owner's manuals inside them. Further inspection revealed that not only is it completely furnished with beds, a sofa, a kitchen table tables, lamps, and chairs, but it also includes brand new pots and pans, silverware, dishes, glasses, cups, towels, blankets, bed pillows in sealed plastic bags, and more! Linda joked that she half-expected to see a fully cooked turkey in the oven! I opened a closet door and proclaimed, "Look at this -- there's clothes in here, and they're my size!" When I expressed my surprise about the completeness of the furnishings to the Community's owners, they told me that they like to keep their rental units "toothbrush-ready," meaning that someone from the north can move in with only their clothes and toothbrush, and be able to start enjoying their time in Florida right away. Wow!
After finalizing the rental, I opened bank accounts at a Bank of America branch in a nearby grocery store. I didn't know it beforehand, but it turned out that the college where I'm going to work has a special relationship with the Bank of America, so I got to open a free checking account that includes a whole page of extras at no charge, a free savings account, and a free VISA Platinum account, plus the bank gave me $65 in cash, to thank me for opening the accounts! While the cashier was helping me open my accounts, a woman came up and stood behind me, holding a wad of cash and a deposit slip. The cashier said to the woman, "If that's just a normal deposit, and you don't want to wait, you can just leave it on the counter and I'll deposit it for you and mail you the receipt." So, the woman put her wad of cash and deposit slip on the counter and walked away! Wow!
This afternoon, I made a few calls to finalize the billing for our utilities in our "mobile mansion," and rented a car to use for my drive to my first day of work tomorrow. Then Jim came home from work early, and Jim and Linda drove me to my new job, to show me exactly how to get there. Then, we all had McDonald's for supper and they left to go to their weekly church small-group meeting.
Meanwhile, back in the Frostbite State, my wife and all 4 pets are all doing fine. With me gone,
the pets are sticking to my wife like glue, especially when she's asleep at night. She says
that every few hours during the day, Mini and Max, our two dogs, ask her where I am, but
other than that, they seem pretty happy.
I'm in the Sunshine State, for the first time in 28 years! I'm staying at Jim and Linda's home (see December 13 Journal entry). I downloaded and installed WS_FTP software on their computer so that I could access and update this Journal by FTP while I'm here, if I have time. My flight here left almost an hour late because the airline was "waiting for a part" for the plane. Was it a washer for the ice maker or a bolt to hold on a wing? They never told us. On the way here, there was nearly constant turbulence that was pretty disconcerting for the first hour or so. I eventually concluded that, as long as the stewards were walking up and down the aisles as though everything was OK, then everything must be OK. Wow, it sure is warm here! When I stepped off the plane, I instantly (and very perceptively) realized that I really should have left my parka in my car back in the Frostbite State, instead of bringing it with me on the plane. Tomorrow morning, I'll sign the papers for our rented mobile home, rent a car, learn how to get to my new job, and maybe clear up a few other details.
Back in the Frostbite State, the new septic system is completely finished, and the new water sample
(taken after installing the reverse-osmosis-filter) is on its way to the lab for testing.
I just barely finished my list of things that I had to do before I came here, partly because
I had to snowblow another 4 inches of new snow before I left.
Time is rushing by in a blur lately. Today is my last full day in the Frostbite State. Tomorrow, I fly to the Sunshine State to finalize our rented mobile home, open a bank account, work my first day at my new job, and familiarize myself with the area. This coming Sunday afternoon, I'll be back in the Frostbite State just long enough to pick up and pack our rented moving truck. The next morning, we'll start our four-day drive back to the Sunshine State.
The septic workers will finish their work today. As I type this, they've already cleared all of the snow from the large drainfield area in the back yard, and carried all of the drainfield pipes back to that area. The septic inspector will be here at 2:00 this afternoon, so the job will have to be finished before then.
Yesterday, I had a list of 16 things that I had to do before my flight tomorrow, but I worked from 9:00 AM until about 11:30 PM, and now I only have 6 things left to do before I go. Installing the reverse-osmosis water filter turned out to be even more of a pain than I had anticipated. The filtering system looks like a moonshiner's still, with 5 different tanks, all connected with long plastic hoses and plastic fittings that seem to always be on the verge of leaking. It took me more than 7 hours to install the whole system leak-free. It will probably only take me about 2 hours if I ever have to install another one, because now I know which parts of the installation instructions are wrong, as well as what to do each time the instructions are horribly incomplete.
My wife's boss is going to buy our snowblower, but I hope that he agrees to come to and get it this coming Sunday, instead of tonight, because we're expecting another 6 inches of snow tonight.
If I have the ability to update this Journal during the next several days, I will. If not, then I'll write again as soon
as I can.
My wife's sister, Linda, and her husband, Jim, have been living in the Sunshine State for more than 4 years. They've voluntarily spent a lot of time in the past 6 weeks, looking for a place for us to rent near them and my new job. Unfortunately, the only houses that they found for rent were $1500-$2000 per month, with a non-breakable 12-month lease -- and almost none of them allowed pets (we have 2 dogs and 2 cats). So, we thought that maybe we could rent a 2-bedroom apartment, which go for $750-$900 per month, but it turned out that only a few apartment complexes allow more than 2 pets, and the few that do, charge a large additional monthly fee and a large non-refundable damage deposit for each pet that you have.
Well, yesterday, Jim and Linda both spent the whole day looking for a place
for us. Last night, they called us with a great find -- a 2 bedroom mobile home in a 55-and-up community (that will rent
to 45-and-ups). The home rents for only $900 per month on a 3-month renewable lease, and they have no problem with us
having 4 pets. Plus, the mobile home park has a heated pool and a laundry area. That mobile home will give us a
place to move to 12 days from now. Once we're there, we'll have 6 months to find a non-mobile-home place to rent,
or a house to buy, before the hurricane season starts. THANKS, Jim and Linda! We owe you big time!
After a 2-day delay due to 12 inches of new snow, the septic system workers began working yesterday, a windy day in
which the high temperature only got up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit. They
appear to be very hard workers, doing an excellent job. Within a few hours, they had dug out a pile of
dirt from my front yard that covered most of my side yard up to the bottoms of my upstairs windows. Good news: they
discovered
that my first septic tank is still good enough to use. That will save us $1,000, lowering the total cost to $9,000.
A few hours later, they had installed a second and
third concrete tank that are each about the size of our main bathroom. Today, they'll start installing the
pipes to the drainfield that they still have to build in the back yard, and they might also start to connect the
electricity from the house to the pump that's in the third tank. At least they'll have a nice day to work today --
it's sunny, with an expected high temperature of 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
Last month, I suffered through a fiasco of incompetence when dealing with Catholic Charities (see November 26 Journal entry). Today, I suffered through another fiasco of uncaring incompetence, this time at the hands of the Salvation Army. I had called them several weeks ago, to arrange for them come today, to pick up several pieces of furniture and several boxes of household items. When my wife called them yesterday, to confirm today's appointment, they told her they had lost their record of today's appointment. My wife convinced them to come out today anyway, and went through the entire list of items that we were donating, which they confirmed to her that they would take. Then, this morning, the Salvation Army truck arrived, and the first thing they told me was that they don't take anything from upstairs or downstairs -- an extremely important detail that they neglected to tell us, either a month ago or yesterday -- so they wouldn't take our long folding table which is downstairs. Then, they said that they can't take our swivel chair, because it is not on their list (it was on their list a month ago, and it was on their list yesterday!). Then, they said that they can't take our metal file cabinet, because they don't take file cabinets. If that's their policy, then why had they told us that they would take it, both a month ago and again yesterday?!! So, if my wife hadn't called yesterday to confirm today's appointment, they wouldn't have shown up at all, and now that they did show up, they refused to take several of the items that they had twice agreed to take. So, now we're stuck trying to find homes for several items items that they had promised they would take, but then didn't take. I called and spoke to their boss, who told me that I have to understand that human error occurs, but he didn't offer to do anything to rectify the situation. I told him that his organization commited approximately 7 different human errors, and broke several promises in this situation, and that their errors and broken promises are going to cost me time and money. He said, "Well, that's your opinion." It is clear to me that the Salvation Army doesn't care enough to keep its promises and commitments to its donors, so I will never donate anything to them again.
UPDATE:. Two hours later, I was surprised to receive a phone call from a supervisor at the Salvation
Army. He apologized for the trouble they had caused me, and asked me if I still wanted to donate the table, swivel
chair, and metal file cabinet. Later this afternoon, he and another supervisor arrived in another Salvation Army
truck, took those three items, and thanked me for my donation.
Just like yesterday, the workers couldn't start installing the new septic system today, because of the weather. Last
night, I snowblowed 7 inches of snow off of my 150-foot-long, 25-foot-wide driveway
after the weatherman had assured us that the snow had stopped falling, and that we might get one more inch of snow
overnight. Instead of the predicted one inch, we got another 5 inches, for a total of 12 inches in the past 24 hours,
so this morning, my driveway looked like I hadn't even snowblowed it. That points
out another big frustration of living in the Frostbite State -- not only is the weather horrible, but the
meteorologists can't accurately predict what the weather will be 2 hours from now, let alone what it will be
tomorrow or for the next few days. The good news is that one of the septic workers used his large Bobcat to clear my
driveway this morning, free of charge. It only took him about 10 minutes, but it would
have taken me over an hour to do it, even with my big snowblower.
Workers were supposed to start installing a brand new, $10,000 septic system at our house this morning, but they called
and postponed their start until tomorrow. Why? Because it's snowing, and we're expecting 8-10 inches of it by late
tonight. As you can imagine, the need to constantly monitor the weather's impact on everything you do is just one
more reason why I'm really glad to be moving out of the Frostbite State.
Our rental truck and motel reservations are all confirmed. Now the only major tasks we have left to do are sell our
house and find a rental house in the Sunshine State.
Well, I lived with my haircut a few days, but I learned that, no matter what I did, the sides and back still curled up
and stuck out. So, tonight, I went to a beauty shop and had my hair cut even shorter. Now it's only 1-2 inches long,
just long enough to lay down, and it looks really nice. In fact, it's probably the nicest-looking haircut I've ever
gotten. When I got home, my wife took photos of it that I'll post here later. I'll also take those photos with me to
show the stylist whenever I get my hair cut from now on.
ComputerBob.com had its 90,000th visitor today. That means that it has had 10,000 visits since this
past May 21st. I don't know who all of you are, but thank you very, very much for visiting my site and telling others
about it!
Feel free to add your opinion to the good-natured discussion about
my haircut that a former student of mine started in my forums.
Our house went on the market today. Now we wait, hoping that someone will want to buy it right away, but planning for every foreseeable possibility. I will be flying to the Sunshine State on December 16th to find a house for us to rent, returning to the Frostbite State on December 21st. Then, it looks like we're going to leave the Frostbite State on December 22, drive about 400 miles each day, stay at a pet-friendly motel each night, and arrive at our rented home late in the afternoon on Christmas Day. That schedule should give us time to get acclimated before I start working full-time on January 5th. Since there's no possibility that our current house will sell fast enough to close before we have to leave, we will close on it by long distance, which our realtor assures us will be easy to do by fax.
Many of you know that I've grown my hair for the past 10 years. In fact, for at least the past 6 years, it
has reached past my waist. Well, don't tell my Mom because I want to surprise her (I don't think she ever visits this
site), but tonight, I had an old friend cut my hair. As her husband (also an old friend) and 3 young sons watched,
she cut off my ponytail first, while I hammed it up by screaming in pain, which delighted the boys. I got home from
my haircut about 30 minutes ago, and my hair is now 4-5 inches long. At my friend's suggestion, I'm happily donating
my long ponytail to Locks of Love,
a charity that "provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children under age 18 suffering
from long-term medical hair loss." For posterity's sake, my wife took before and after photos of
my hair from the front and back -- I might post those here some day, for your entertainment.