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November 2000| |
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Current entry Archive November 2000 |
Skipped a couple of days there, for completely opposite reasons. Tuesday was just a terrible day, so I loafed in front of the TV all evening to recover. Yesterday, by contrast, I got on a roll and packed till after 1 AM.
Some interesting developments at work while I was away. Carolyn, who quit during the summer, doesn't like her new job and is coming back, probably as early as Monday. Also, Jaime got a very good offer from a company in western Massachusetts and gave his notice; his last day is next Tuesday.
Work-wise, Tuesday was a complete wash, because our Rochester office moved this weekend and their new wan line didn't work, so we spent all day trying to isolate the problem. Yesterday, I did manage to get something done--I've now got a WinInstall for the latest GroupWise client patch ready, and have begun a staged rollout to see if any problems crop up. So far, so good.
Also on the work front, I have hit upon a promising potential solution for a persistent WinInstall problem with the way it tracks installs vs. uninstalls--sometimes it doesn't count a particular uninstall as cancelling an install when it should, which means that if the app has a limited number of licenses, one gets effectively lost unless we manually twiddle the WinInstall database. That's all very well for me, because I know WinInstall inside out, but I'd rather not require the Help Desk to do this on a regular basis. So today I put the groundwork in place to test my fix, but implementing it will take some time, so I will probably put it off until I'm in England and concentrate in the meantime on more immediate stuff that requires a physical presence.
I've also spent quite a bit of time tracking down some very strange bugs that spontaneously cropped up in two of my apps, neither of which has had any programming modifications for months, or even years. It turns out that a database they both depend on was tinkered with while I was away. Nothing major, just a few field names changed, and some fields that used to contain key ID numbers to link them to records in other databases were completely blanked out. Ooops.
The last couple of days I've accomplished some serious packing. The apartment is finally starting to look as though someone is moving out, which is a rewarding feeling. It looks simultaneously crowded and empty, if that makes any sense. Half-packed boxes and similar chaos are everywhere, but the walls, counters, shelves etc are beginning to look bare. Tonight I spent a couple of hours at my storage unit, packing the stuff that's there. (It wasn't really packed before; it was just stored. Now it's in transportable condition.)
As I've mentioned before, packing has already included a lot of giving away and throwing away of things I don't need, want, or use. This has always been the case whenever I've moved in the past, and I know from experience that the trend accelerates as the packing grinds on--i.e. towards the end, my definition of what can be thrown away becomes very liberal. That may not happen as much this time because I'm doing only a portion of the packing. Still, it's a good feeling, weeding through all this stuff that I've somehow accumulated. It's astonishing, the sheer volume of stuff I am disposing of. I feel like I'm shedding my skin.
Today I managed to book a truck for the move to storage, and also booked a hotel for the last few nights I'll be here, which will make the last bits of packing easier because I won't be trying to live here at the same time.
All in all, a very productive day, partly because it started almost two hours earlier than it normally would have. This is due to something that happened on Tuesday. Mike got home to find a we-tried-to-deliver-this note from the post office addressed to me, for a package that probably contains more account-related stuff from my new bank. Unfortunately, the package requires my signature. Mike assures me that he is not me, so he can't sign for it, but they'll have long since given up and returned it to the sender by the time I get back. I also obviously can't sign the note, which would thereby authorize Mike to pick it up for me. Hmm. So Mike gave me all the relevant information, and I called the post office this morning to see if we could reach some sort of accommodation. The snag was that that branch only takes calls between 6:45 and 1:00 UK time, which meant the latest I could call was just before 8:00 AM. So I got up around 6:30 to call. I meant to go back to bed after that, but I got caught up in packing again and before I knew it, it was time to get ready for work anyway.
I finally got a chance to call my dad tonight, for the first time since I got back. They tend to keep very early hours, so the last few nights haven't been conducive to calling. That will be one handy thing about being in the UK--I can call my dad at midnight and he'll still be up! Suddenly, for the first time in my life, I'll be on the early shift, at least as far as people in the US are concerned.
My dad expressed the very reasonable concern that I'll be under a lot of stress once I get to the UK. I've considered this possibility, of course, but I think I'll be OK. It definitely helps that I can stay on with H&A until I have acclimatized; that's one major source of potential stress gone. Also Mike and I have talked about the possibility of culture shock and homesickness, so he's ready to be supportive as necessary. I'm quite confident that I can handle this. It'll all come down to mindset, I think. If I fight the fact that things are different, I'll be miserable. The trick is to accept that it's different, and focus on how things are better or interesting.
The rumor mill at work is apparently straining at the seams; this week a few people have asked about my situation. So far I haven't had to say much, so it hasn't been very uncomfortable. Yet.
Completed at 11:23 PM
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Ahh, the weekend. If you're diligent, you can really put things off during the weekend.
Actually the nice thing about the weekend is that there's time for putting things off and still time left over to get things done in. I've made yet more substantial progress on packing. In fact I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm not getting it done too quickly. At this rate I'll be completely done within a couple more days, which is awkward because I'm living here another two weeks, so if I pack all the stuff I'm using, it'll be a bit inconvenient.
But in reality, I know this apparent pace is an illusion. I'm sure that many time-consuming things will crop up which I haven't as yet discovered. There's an enormous amount of just plain thinking that has to be done, to make sure I have items properly separated into the categories of [a] hand-carry to the UK on the plane, [b] have the movers ship to the UK (and therefore I must not pack), [c] put in storage (and therefore I must pack), [d] return to any of various other people (or work), [e] throw away, [f] give away. This isn't as hard as you might think, because being an INTP, the first thing I did was make a database (which is more fun than the actual packing) to track what is going where; but also because I'm an INTP, I have the hardest time noticing all this stuff. Once when I moved out of a place, I left behind all the pictures I had on the walls simply because I didn't notice them any more.
In addition to packing, I've also been sucked into a book. I selected King of the Sea out of the queue when I finished the last book. I've had it for nearly a year, but it has never grabbed my interest; the only reason I'm reading it now is the attempt to read as much of the queue as possible so I can decide which books to leave behind. Somewhat to my surprise, it's turning out to be really good. Behind the plot, it's primarily about linguistics; it's doing an excellent job of describing the difficulties inherent in trying to decipher a truly foreign (i.e. non-human) language, and of pointing out linguistic assumptions so basic I didn't even realize I had them.
Pete and Mel called tonight. It seems that, while in the UK, they acquired a taste for the One True Tea, and they were wondering if I knew what they should try to find at their supermarket that might be equivalent. Heh heh. It's not just me; the tea really is better. Well, anyway, they had only mixed success. The Real Thing in this country is packaged as Tetley British Blend; it has the round, gauze-like teabags (and the right flavor). Second best is Tetley Original; it's the same tea, but it's in the traditional rectangular waterproof American teabag with a string. Their supermarket carries Original, but not British Blend. Ah well, it's pretty close.
When I went to the UK in May, I brought travelers' checks with me, which turned out to be a mistake because everyone hates them. I had £60 of them left at the end of the trip, but rather than turn them back in (and have to do the currency conversion again, which always loses), I cleverly kept them, knowing I'd be going back. And indeed, I brought them with me in October. I then promptly forgot all about them and, as I've just discovered, I brought them right back here again. Ooops.
Spent an hour and a half or so on the phone with Mike tonight. It's nice that he is just as impatient for me to get there as I am. I'd hate to be the only one.
Completed at 2:05 AM
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More of the same today. This doesn't appear to be a very exciting part of this whole move process, I'm afraid. Put stuff in boxes; repeat.
Whenever I wasn't putting things in boxes, I deconstructed the apartment. There have been a number of things that might be categorized as, er, leasehold modifications made during the 4+ years I've lived here. Today I spent a lot of time with screwdriver in hand, undoing things. I managed not to break anything or electrocute myself, so that's pretty good, I think.
You know how whenever you buy an appliance, or furniture, or anything that requires assembly, it comes with various parts and tools for the assembly process? Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of them, and as I collected them I just threw them all in a box, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'd have no trouble remembering what equipment it all went with, because it's obvious. Well, naturally, it turns out that it's not, six or eight years down the road. I now have a boxful of mysterious bits of equipment, most of which I have absolutely no idea what they go with. I'm hesitant to throw them out, because then later I'll need to change some piece of equipment, only to find that I've tossed all its extra bits. So I stare at each of these little collections of stuff, and rack my brain to see if I can't find some inkling of what they are. I was quite proud of myself for figuring out that a featureless 6" hollow, cylindrical, recurved bit of black metal is a left-side mounting arm for the round table that attaches to the side of my reading chair (I'm using the right-side one, which is why this one is spare). There have been other successes, but some items remain mysterious.
I finished the aforementioned King of the Sea first thing this morning. The plot turned out rather depressing, but the whole linguistic theme was very well handled, so all in all an excellent book, I'd say.
Having stayed up rather late both nights this weekend, I may be in for some trouble trying to sleep tonight...We shall see.
Completed at 12:23 AM
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Tomorrow is Jaime's last day, so tonight we went out to the Cheesecake Factory for a little good-bye party. In an amusing twist, today was also Carolyn's first day back, so she came along. After dinner everyone was stuffed, of course, because they serve enormous meals, but I shamelessly got a slice of Linda's Fudge Cake to go. It's sitting on the counter right now...calling to me...singing its chocolate siren song...
I began cleaning out my office. I have years' worth of files for projects I've worked on that I will have to go through and weed. There's also all the personal stuff I have to clean out, some of which has been there, totally forgotten, for years; frinstance, I found some photos that are about eight years old. I've brought a lot of that home tonight, so the office already looks like I've moved out of it.
I'm trying to figure out how I ought to handle the new UK computer. Should I prepare a new hard drive with everything I want on it here, where I have everything I might need at hand, and bring it, on the assumption that I'll be able to get all the various drivers for the new computer working on it (which shouldn't be a big deal)? Should I bring my home computer hard drive instead? See, the computer at home has been here for a long time, so the standard setup at work has changed a lot, and this PC hasn't kept up. On the one hand, it would be nice to start clean, and with the current standard setup, but on the other hand I have lots of apps installed on this computer, and configured just so, and I don't really look forward to doing that again. On the third hand, I suppose I could take the HD from my current work computer, since it was recently set up, but it also had a problem where my computer went wonky a few months ago and I'm still not entirely confident about it. (Plus it's only 17GB.) About the only option I'm pretty sure I shouldn't do is the fourth hand, which would be setting up the computer from scratch in the UK. I'd be missing too many things.
What I really should do is set up a new HD that reconciles and incorporates everything from both the work and home computers. That'll be a bit of a challenge, because I want to keep using both computers right up to the end, which would make them moving targets.
Something to think about, anyway. But not for much longer.
Completed at 11:25 PM
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Well, today I settled on the set-up-a-new-HD-from-scratch approach, and mostly completed the basic setup. Now I have to reconcile it with my existing working computers. There are three I'll have to incorporate into it. At work I use two different PCs on a regular basis; I'll just start transferring stuff from them to the new computer and stop using the old computers. That way it'll be obvious immediately if I missed anything, and it'll still be easy to get anything I do miss. I'm still not sure when I'll handle the home PC, since I'll be wanting to use it right up to the end. In any event, I'll then bring just the hard drive to the UK, pop it into the new box, and see how it goes from there.
Jaime is officially gone, and Carolyn has been installed into his cube. Strange. A lot of changes all at once, for a department that has been essentially static (or just adding people) for a long time.
Amusingly, although it appears that the rumor mill still hasn't properly gotten hold of me yet, it has apparently generated instead the rumor that David has given his notice. All kinds of people have asked about it in the last two days. The rumor mill appears to be following some previously-undiscovered law of conservation.
More packing. Also at the moment I'm assiduously putting off cleaning out the refrigerator. That ought to be a fairly ghastly task, considering that I frequently put things in, but rarely take things out. Just to horrify the fastidious among you who might optimistically underestimate the seriousness of my refrigerator situation, I know for a fact that one of the leftover containers currently in there was put there in July...1999. Heh. Maybe I'll just throw that one away without trying to save the container. It has probably re-evolved life from first principles by now. Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul references come crowding to mind here...
Oh yes, yesterday I also made several move-related calls. I called my US bank to see what the holdup is on processing the paperwork that will allow me to do my own wire transfers. I called a UK tax firm that specializes in personal taxes for international clients and had a short consultation with them, although I'm not sure I'll want to stick with them, because they didn't seem as knowledgeable as I'd expected. And I called the credit card people at my new bank to tell them that they'd spelled my name wrong on the card and asked them to issue another one. (You may remember from last week that we'd had to jump through hoops to allow Mike to pick up the aforementioned credit card after it was delivered requiring my signature. He got it; but now I have to get a replacement. I did think to ask them not to deliver the new one until after I get back.)
The new computer hasn't arrived yet, but it could show up any day now...
Completed at 11:23 PM
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When I gave notice on this apartment, the rental office responded a few days later with a memo reminding me that when I moved in, I paid the final month's rent ($795) in advance, but that my rent has since gone up to $990, so in November I should only pay the difference, $195 (my my). So in November, I sent them a rent check for only $195. On Monday, I got a second memo, this one chastizing me for paying only $195 rent when clearly that's not the amount of my rent, and reminding me that my rent is $990, and suggesting that I pay the difference, please. Hmm. I'd say that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, except that both memos came from the same person. The right hand, it would seem, is keeping secrets from itself.
Yesterday I wondered whether the new PC might show up soon, and speak of the devil, Mike had a message for me on the answering machine tonight (which is cool in itself), from the delivery people, wanting to make delivery arrangements. New toy!
Tonight was just more packing. I'm really down to the end of the packing; everything yet unpacked is still in use. I'm staying at a hotel for two nights before the storage move, which should easily give me time to pack all the remaining stuff. Sadly, that means I'm now almost completely out of ways to put off cleaning out the refrigerator.
One thing I did instead of cleaning out the fridge was make some calls to schedule utility terminations. When I canceled my MediaOne internet service, at the end of the conversation the lady said, "Now, I have to explain to you that once the cancellation takes place, you won't be able to use your email account any more." Hmm.
At work today, I revisited the topic of upgrading Internet Exploiter company-wide. This time I'm trying using the IEAK (Internet Explorer Administration Kit) to prepare the rollout. It has its drawbacks, but it also definitely has some useful points, such as being able to include additional things (like setup of various ActiveX controls) in its setup package and getting them all over with at once.
It's been long enough since the last time I fiddled around with this that when I started the IEAK today, it cheerfully informed me that it had noticed that there was a newer version of the IEAK available. Did I want to download it now? Well, I didn't; I'd just as soon stick with the one I'd gotten used to, so I said No. It allowed this...but then greyed out all the buttons, so I couldn't actually do anything until I let it upgrade itself.
Completed at 10:46 PM
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So difficult to imagine the otherness of another person.
--Ian Watson, The Embedding
Two weeks from today...!
I finally ran out of excuses and tackled the refrigerator. In terms of sheer unadulterated Frankensteinian horror, I have to say it was something of a letdown. Instead, in a surprise dark-horse victory, that honor went to the collection of well-neglected plant pots lurking on the balcony. Life may not have re-evolved from scratch out there, but if not, there were plenty of examples of ordinary life to be found in them. The single-celled variety seems to have been particularly well represented.
Most of the plant pots were actually fine, but the ones that had the misfortune to be topmost in a stack were unsalvageable and I simply threw them away. The rest I washed, in the bathtub, and they are even now drying, inverted, looking like eggs from Alien, on every available square inch of the bathroom floor.
I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Mike today, interrupted by...delivery people, with a sparkly new Dell PC! In what surely must be the greatest hardship so far in this entire process, Mike must now set it up and tinker with it all by himself. Oh, the misery. (Well, we have to be sure it works, right?)
Work the last couple of days has been largely occupied with preparations for leaving. The new hard drive is just about ready, except for consolidating my data files from the various computers I'm using. The office is mostly cleaned out. While going through my file drawers to sort the current stuff from the old and now-irrelevant stuff, I had the unnerving experience of finding a folder containing page after page of what is unquestionably my handwriting, about a project I don't recall at all. It's not just that I don't remember writing those particular notes; I don't remember the very existence of the entire project they're apparently about. Wow.
Meanwhile, I'm nearly into the Final Countdown. I'm already in my last week of residence at this apartment. Move #1--the move to storage--is a week from today.
Completed at 10:55 PM
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"What good is learning," the frontiersman asked, "if you take it to your grave?"
Sullivan turned away scornfully. "What good is friendship, then, or love, or life itself? What don't you take to your grave?"
--Robert Wilson, Darwinia
(The books I'm reading at the moment don't seem to be rich mines of interesting quotes, so I'm also going to begin using quotes I've noted in the past.)
I stayed up till about 3:30 this morning. Maybe 4:00. Ooops! Well, I wasn't remotely sleepy, and I was on an excellent roll in several areas, so I didn't want to stop. I did manage to get up around 9:00 anyway, so I don't think I've trashed Monday. I did laundry around midnight...but scarily, I wasn't the only one using the laundry room...
There are, for the first time in quite a while, some changes to this site. I've added a page where I'll write reviews and commentary about books I've read; and also a page listing changes to the site. I haven't bothered with a Changes page before, because the whole site was changing all the time, but it seems to have settled down now.
Meanwhile, a very busy day today. I returned various items to work, and also brought in some stuff I'd borrowed from Dave; and I went to the U-Haul place to double-check my reservation, buy some more packing materials, and move some things from Point A to Point B. Then a couple of hours on the phone with Mike (then Dad, then Tom & Linda), followed by more packing...If you can call it packing at this point. It doesn't look much like packing any more. This is the stage where I scrutinze everything to make sure it's all heading for the right place.
Completed at 12:45 AM
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Not really a banner day today. I think I'll curl up with a book now.
Completed at 10:05 PM
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Oh dear. Rather a surly tone yesterday, I'm afraid. Well, at the time I wrote that entry, I had just punched myself in the nose with a toaster oven. That's my excuse, anyway.
About a month ago I submitted paperwork to my bank, which should eventually allow me to initiate my own wire transfers by telephone, rather than having to go to the bank in person. That paperwork hasn't finished being processed yet, so I still can't do it. It recently occurred to me that there are a decreasing number of banking days left during which I'll be physically here, and the likelihood of them finishing my paperwork before I go to England seems likewise decreasing, so unless I did an in-person wire transfer in the few remaining days, I wouldn't have any cash in the account in England for who knows how long (which would probably be bad). So this morning, I transferred a scarily large sum, which with any luck will hold out until the bureaucratic wheels at the bank finish their grinding.
Also did some more address change notifications, and resumed the search for a UK tax accountant (since the one I'd settled on hasn't been impressive so far). But mostly I spent my time today continuing to transfer my life to the new hard drive, and trying to finish up the large projects I have in progress before I go. One of them is done (upgrading GroupWise) but the other two (migrate the lab to NT, upgrade IE) are still in halfway-done limbo.
Completed at 12:25 AM
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I was back on happy trails
I didn't have to try
The wind was in my sails
Felt so happy I could cry
Cause nothing changes change
I felt like time was on my side
I was happy and I really felt alive.
--Terrorvision, "When I Die", Shaving Peaches
Ominously, the UK tax accountant I spoke to today told me that they'd be happy to help me with my tax situation once I arrive in the UK, but in the meantime, just don't transfer or otherwise bring large sums of money into the UK and I'd be fine.
Ooops.
(If you haven't already read it, see yesterday's diary entry for a good example of bad timing.)
Why not transfer funds? The accountant thinks such transfers could possibly be viewed as capital gains and be re-taxed. This possibility was unpleasant enough that I did some hasty web research, which actually hit pay dirt. I found a vast treasure trove of Inland Revenue informational documents explaining what the requirements are for various situations. Amazingly, these are not pure legalese tax code, but rather plain English, quite comprehensible documents. From them I have concluded that my UK tax situation may not be as complex as I'd been led to believe. I think the UK accountants are skipping over the basics and cutting straight to devising strategies for tax minimization. While this would be nice, I'd rather deal with the basics first and get fancy later, if at all. The accountants have been talking about starting my own corporation and working for H&A as a consultant and all kinds of things that sound like an enormous paperwork and logistical horror; but it's clear from the Inland Revenue documents that such steps are not required. As they explain it, my tax situation seems pretty straightforward and even (gasp) almost logical. My tax liability to the UK begins when I take up residence (so I'm not retroactively liable for the whole current UK tax year). If at all possible, my employer should pay taxes directly to the UK on my behalf. If not, I can manually pay taxes myself. The question of whether H&A also should pay NHS premiums for me isn't addressed in these documents, but is probably less critical. Oh yes, and they also had lots of tables addressing the question of investments and capital gains, and they didn't include any dire warnings about fund transfers, and didn't have any categories for capital gains taxes on such activity.
On Friday I have a meeting with the accounting department and one of H&A's tax attorneys, which with any luck will settle the situation. Given that H&A has frequently sent staff overseas for long-term assignments, they've dealt with all this before, just not with the UK in particular. They may well turn out to have all the answers.
Progress today on both my remaining major projects that I had committed to finishing before I physically leave. Internet Explorer is ready to begin staged rollout tomorrow. The lab got its new NT server today (Jill set it up) and I begin their migration from NetWare tomorrow as well. This won't be a big deal because they are a tiny office, which makes them a perfect trial environment. I'll find out whether I've overlooked anything in my migration plan, without inconveniencing 200 people if it turns out that I have.
Meanwhile, a milestone: This is my last night in this apartment. I'll be here in the evenings tomorrow and Friday, to finish up the packing, but I'll be sleeping at a hotel from here on out (except when I'm in Maine).
Actually, as you might expect, there are lots of these little lasts going on as the days tick down. When Jaime was in his last week at H&A, every time I turned around he was noticing lasts, and getting quite sentimental. Last time in the cafeteria. Last time walking up these stairs. Last time parking in the parking lot. I find, though, that I apparently don't have the knack of getting all worked up over them. Once I've noticed one (if I notice it), there doesn't seem to be a whole lot more to think about it. It's like when my car rolled over 100,000 miles. I noticed when it was at about 99,990 and realized that it would roll over before I got to work, but then I completely forgot about it and didn't think of it again until about 200 miles later. But even if I had noticed at the time, what then? What deep and profound thoughts are there to be had on such an occasion?
"Hey, 100,000 miles." <mental shrug>
That pretty much covers it, I'd say.
If anything, I see these lasts simply as indicators that the goal is finally nearing. Well, maybe they'll affect me more later, I don't know. Right now they are mostly to do with work and the apartment, which don't exactly have a high emotional content. I won't miss the apartment, because it's just a place. I won't miss work, because I will still be working for them, and besides, who could miss that dreadful parking lot? I can't even miss my stuff, because I'm bringing most of it with me. Obviously I can miss my family, but I won't have to, because they will stay in touch.
Right, family?
Completed at 12:15 AM
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How often do you just get the hell up and do something? How often do you have the courage or the strength to leave everything behind and look for something new, to search for something that you can be happy with?
--Michael Marshall Smith, Only Forward
Things are beginning to get seriously hectic. Tonight I'm packing the things I've been using and therefore couldn't pack. I'm also making sure everything that can't be boxed is ready to go without requiring a huge amount of bother to get it loaded into the truck or one of the cars. I'm also doing some cleaning in preparation for the international move--laundry and dishes and the like. It takes a lot longer to do it than it does to write about it.
Diary entries are likely to be sporadic for the next few days; first I'll be really busy, then I'll be in Maine, and then I'll be without a computer in the evenings, so I don't know how often I'll be able to post entries.
Right, I'd better get back to it!
Completed at 10:53 PM
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Surprise, surprise; it turns out Windows 95 has an FTP command line utility, so I can write a diary entry even though I'm in Maine tonight!
Let's see, can I even begin to make any sense of the last two days?
Tom and Linda arrived pretty early last night, so we had dinner when they got there. This was nice because I'd been wanting to subject Tom to Thai food ever since I found out (by going there with Mike) that the nearby Thai place is really good. It's not often that I get to introduce Tom to a cuisine he's never had before. I have to say it went over very well (at least if you count Tom saying "This is excellent" about seventeen times as going over well). The Thornton's chocolate sampler I brought back from the UK was an even bigger hit...So, an auspicious beginning.
Slight downhill turn after that when the hotel was apparently running an airplane engine in the hallway directly outside our room's door; none of us slept much, I don't think. We gave up trying and started getting up at 4:44 (pronounced "Fwah fwahty-fwah" in the local accent, I'll have you know). So we were already quite punchy and silly before the day even got started, due to general sleep deprivation.
A quick breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and we were on the job by 7:30. (These numbers roll off the keyboard so easily, but anyone who knows me will realize that these are hours I almost never see, unless I stay up till them, which, upon reflection, I mostly did. Tom and Linda, having a two-year-old, are of course completely accustomed to going days at a time without sleep, so they took it all in stride.)
What happened next I can only describe as everyone suddenly moving in fast-forward. Almost everything was out of the apartment and in the truck by 9:15. At this point Tom and Dave (the Arbiters of Truck Packing) decided they Required Some Rope, so we had to go to the store and get some, which took till 10:00. They then tied everything to everything, and we threw the last few things (including an enormous aloe vera that might generously be described as "difficult to pack") into the cars, and were on the road before 11:00. A quick stop at my storage unit to load up the stuff there, and terminate the lease on the unit, and onward we went.
Around this point I realized I'd once again done something I always do. I had made a careful, thorough list of all the things that had to be done in this move, because there were just too many to remember. I then left the list on the kitchen counter at the apartment, so I've had to wing it after all. Still, I don't think I've forgotten anything. Yet. But then I wouldn't, would I?
Then we had what amounted to a drag race up the Maine Turnpike. Did you know that a U-Haul can go 85? Without really trying? So the drive itself wasn't any longer than it had to be, although in the middle somewhere I had fairly severe trouble with being sleepy. I prescribed myself Samael and Tristania at high decibel levels, which seemed to clear up the problem.
We stopped here first, to drop off stuff I'm giving away, and then arrived at the storage unit just as dark fell. (Thud.) The fast-forward thing happened again; everything was out of the truck and fitted together like puzzle pieces in the storage unit in less than an hour.
Tom and I dropped off the truck (we went two miles over our mileage allowance, oh no) and then we all reassembled at my dad's for pizza and cake (which, Eric informed us, he helped make and also frosted). There was also a second box of Thornton's to deliver, for my dad and Verna; it seems to have found a happy home. I really enjoy introducing people to British chocolate. We've been eating the wimpy version all our lives, and thought we were chocoholics, and then suddenly here's this other kind that's so much better...The reactions are always fun to watch. Tangentially from which, I'm having my mail forwarded to Pete's house, and he says that he'll send me a shipment of my mail every time I send him a box of Thornton's. Oh dear, we've created a monster.
So now the storage move is done, and much more easily than I'd thought possible. I blame my helpers. They're all so darn efficient and independent. At one point, early in the truck loading, Linda and I were coming up in the elevator, just deciding that we'd start on the boxes next; the door opened, and there was Tom, with 5 boxes on the two-wheeled dolly, and right behind him Dave, with one of the flat four-wheeled dollies with ten! So bringing down all the boxes took, oh, about three trips. It was over in minutes.
So now I'm just days away from the international move. I'm going to have to hustle to be ready for that; I started filling out the necessary paperwork on Friday and discovered that my list of items being shipped isn't nearly adequate. It's OK for Customs purposes, but for insurance, it isn't detailed enough. I have entries like "clothes" on my list; but they want the list itemized down to every last sock, with a declared replacement cost for each item. This makes sense, of course. I will just have to add a bit of detail to my list, that's all. I'm not in bad shape, because I do have a lot of it itemized to an absurd granularity already (e.g. "grater", "ice cream scoop"); I just have several large categories of stuff that I didn't itemize at all (e.g. "sheets", "towels", "CDs"). That's tomorrow afternoon's project, I think. It should be fairly easy, because all the stuff that's not going to England is now out of the way.
It's funny. I've been preparing for all this for so long that actually doing it doesn't seem real. It was more like I was thinking the process through at an extreme level of detail, especially because it all went very close to plan.
So. One week from right now, I should be somewhere just south of Iceland...
Off to bed, I think, even though it's early.
Completed at 10:01 PM
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Wow, does it echo in here!
Things are looking pretty strange. Half the stuff is missing; the other half is untouched. The living room is almost completely empty, but the bookcases along the wall still have all their books, undisturbed. A weird mix.
I've finished the insurance inventory; now I'm packing the actual suitcases for the flight, which means I'm making final decisions about what gets hand-carried and what gets shipped. Not as easy as it probably ought to be. I'm also making sure everything that remains is going, which means things like taking out all the trash so it doesn't show up in England, and doing dishes so they can be packed. Lots of little stuff.
Surprisingly, I've only found a couple of things so far that I meant to put in storage, but overlooked.
Off to the hotel I think.
Completed at 10:37 PM
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Sigh. Leftover Thai food and pizza. Life is good.
Last-minute stuff is winding down here. I thought I still had several hours' worth remaining to do, but I have it all pretty well done and it's not even 9:00 yet. So, since I have the time, I'm doing my final cleanup of this hard drive, rather than waiting till I bring it to work on Wednesday. I had a few bad moments earlier tonight when I thought that MediaOne had disconnected me two days early (which would have made transferring files to the new HD at work rather more difficult), but it turned out to be a temporary connectivity glitch.
Meanwhile, more fun with hotels last night...I checked in, curled up with a book, and then noticed that the room wasn't really getting any warmer. The heating unit was fairly cryptic; it had a brass plate bolted over it explaining that (a) to cool the room, turn the temperature dial to a cooler setting and put the fan on High or Low; (b) to heat the room, turn the dial to a warmer setting and put the fan on High; (c) the fan cannot be turned off, regardless. Really. This was compounded by the fact that the temperature dial had no text on it whatsoever, so it was anyone's guess which direction did what. I turned it all the way one way, waited about 5 minutes, checked and found that the air blowing out was still the same exact temperature as before. I turned it all the way the other way, waited 5 minutes, and had the same result. The maintenance guy looked at it for about ten seconds before pronouncing it broken. So I had to be moved to a different room, after already getting changed for bed; I had to get dressed and pack up again (hopefully not overlooking anything). By this time it was after midnight and I just wanted to go to sleep...So I was tired and cranky. But eventually I did get a room with working heat, and I did get to sleep, so today I'm much better.
Tomorrow is the Big Day. The moving guys show up at 8:00. I'm guessing that they'll probably make quick work of the packing, so it may well be completely done by noon. I have plenty more to do after they're gone, so that works out well for me. I have quite a bit of stuff here that I'll have to put in the car (this computer, for instance). The cable box, remote, and cable modem have to be returned to the cable company. I have to give the apartment a superficial once-over in the cleaning department, and turn in my keys. After that...I guess I go to the hotel and read! Or, if it's early enough, perhaps go to work after all, since I still have a lot to do there.
So. Time to shut down, and disconnect the computer...
Completed at 10:10 PM
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Surprise! A diary entry!
Today's move was finished early enough that I was able to do all the other things I had to get done today with time left over, so now I'm at work, getting a head start on tomorrow's to-do list. I figured I might as well post a diary entry while I'm at it...
The movers, a crew of 3, showed up at about 8:15 and set right to work. I'd been preparing myself for this being an uncomfortable experience, watching someone else pack my stuff and probably not being as gentle with it as I'd wish, but it actually wasn't bad at all. They were very fast, obviously very experienced, and it all just vanished into boxes at lightning speed. After everything was boxed, they had to wrap all the furniture in padding, which took quite a long time, but they were completely finished, loaded up and gone by 12:15.
One thing I hadn't expected, and could never adequately describe, is the noise. Three people going at it with tape guns in an apartment that has turned into an echo chamber creates a sonic madhouse.
For fun, here are some pictures from the day...
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Packing dishes (36 KB). See the munchies on the counter in the background? Wow, they went through those like a school of piranha. |
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Disassembling furniture (31 KB). I felt like quite the successful geek because they kept having to borrow my tools. |
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Wrapping the coffee table (31 KB). Bonus points for anyone who can identify the spherical object on top of the stack of boxes. |
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Packing the bedroom (32 KB). Just look at all the tape on the disassembled bed parts and bookcases and you'll see what I mean about the noise of the tape guns. |
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Loading the truck (52 KB). |
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Done! (50 KB). Can you hear the echo? |
Strange how it all looks like so much more stuff once it's in boxes. I have a feeling that the day it all arrives in Liverpool is going to be a wild one. We'll be hard-pressed to get it brought in and unpackaged in a sensible order so that it doesn't all end up every which way. If we get the movers to bring in and unpackage the furniture items (like bookshelves) first, that'll make the rest of it much easier. If they start unboxing items before there's anywhere to put them, then things may get interesting...
After they left, I did some superficial cleaning, put the remaining stuff into the car (things I hadn't packed yet because I needed them, like the phone, a couple of lamps, and of course the teakettle), and turned in my keys, so I don't live there any more! I guess that means I must live in Liverpool now. Seems reasonable to me, anyway. Speaking of which, my mail-forwarding order finally went into effect yesterday. Whew, that was a bit of close timing.
Once I was done with the apartment, I ran a zigzag down 93, doing other errands like returning my cable box and modem and going to the bank, and finally ended up here at work. The purpose of coming here was to drop off the computer and other work-owned items, finalize this new hard drive, and, of course, check my email.
Something I've noticed repeatedly about lasts is that, especially in the case of something I've done hundreds of times before, the last time ends up being different or strange. This afternoon I filled up at the Mobil station near the apartment, presumably for the last time, and for the first time ever in 4.5 years, their pay-at-the-pump system was down. So instead of having the last transaction be a normal one, it was weird and different, because I had to go inside. Then I went to the bank, again a fairly familiar routine in recent months, but I had to park very far away, so I actually had to walk through Andover town center, which made me realize that I've never done it before. Never.
Oh, and speaking of pay-at-the-pump, Mike tells me Tesco's suddenly has it! Wheee! I won't have to miss it after all.
So, another giant item crossed off the to-do list. Now I just have to get through tomorrow, which being a last day of sorts will probably be a zoo, although mitigated somewhat by the Thanksgiving holiday--lots of staff will take tomorrow off. Then I have a couple of days of rest in Maine, and I'm off!
Completed at 8:23 PM
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Yesterday Steve sent an announcement to all staff about the various changes in the IT department, including my imminent departure. So much for a low profile. On the one hand, this was gratifying, because my mailbox immediately exploded with well-wishes and astonished comments, but on the other hand it was somewhat inconvenient, because today was completely shot as a result. Most of the department took today off, but Kevin and Terri from Graphics took me out to lunch, which was a nice gesture and lots of fun besides.
I left work at about quarter of five--about 3 minutes before tonight's email from Mike arrived, as luck would have it. I expected to spend a very long time sitting in traffic, tonight being the night that everyone travels for Thanksgiving, but it really wasn't bad. There was one terrible accident just after the Hampton tolls (well, whether the accident itself was terrible I don't know, but there were 11 ambulances, 6 fire trucks and a hazmat team, so I suspect it involved some unpleasant substances) that resulted in a half-hour backup to go three miles, but after that it was smooth sailing. No doubt that was partly due to the accident having throttled the traffic down; not enough could get through to result in any significant traffic later on.
So now I'm in Maine for the next few days, looking forward to some rest and relaxation. In which spirit, I think I'll go to bed now. Or very shortly, anyway.
Completed at 10:36 PM
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I forgot to mention in yesterday's entry that when I got here at about 9:00 last night, Tom threw together some vegetables and chicken and spices and presto--excellent Thai food. If you've been following along, you'll realize that the first (and only) time he has ever had it was less than a week ago, yet he can already freely invent authentic-tasting Thai dishes. Hmm.
Today, being Thanksgiving, was largely taken up with eating, in between naps. Not a bad way to spend the day...
Linda and Eric are both sick; I think they have the same truly tenacious cold I caught while I was last in England. It seems to involve the same incredible sore throat. Linda says something much like it is making the rounds at work.
I did accomplish a couple of move-related tidbits today: I dropped off the last items at the storage unit, and signed over the car to Tom & Linda. At this point, all I have to do is pick up the rental car tomorrow, get to the airport on Saturday, and get on the plane. I think I can handle that.
Completed at 8:18 PM
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I have a sore throat.
Noooooo....!
It must be the dry air. Yeah, that's it, just the dry air. That and reading about seventeen books to Eric. Do you hear me, you nassssty little virii?
A quiet, hang-around-the-house kind of day today, aside from picking up the rental car. Mostly I served as a toy for Eric.
So, this is IT. Tomorrow I drive to the airport and I'm off! Again, it doesn't seem quite real yet; maybe once I get on the plane. I'm a little bit scared, but that's to be expected; I can handle it. I'm a lot more excited and happy than scared.
Completed at 9:23 PM
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Now like a bird
She flew away
To chase her dreams
Of books and praise
Still I miss her
Yeah I miss her
Since she's gone...
Hey KLM
AT&T
The UK post system
Do you still love me?
Still I miss her
Yeah I miss her
Since she's gone...
--Type O Negative, "Die With Me", October Rust
Completed at 8:38 AM
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After all the ado of the previous months, I have finally made it here! I may now resume my regularly-scheduled ordinary everyday life, already in progress.
The flight itself (or rather the flights, since there were two legs, which I guess would make it a bipedal flight, except that really refers to feet, not legs, oh never mind) was the bumpiest I've had yet, but nothing scary. Since I'm somewhat susceptible to motion sickness, I took half a Dramamine just before the plane took off, in order to settle any potential stomach unpleasantness but also on the theory that it might make me sleep the flight away. Strangely, it didn't; I was quite thoroughly awake for the duration. Ah well. Anticipation, probably.
One strange thing on the flight--just across the aisle was a woman with a baby of perhaps a year. A few minutes into the flight, one of the attendants brought out a large plastic-shrouded bundle, unwrapped it, did some assembly-type stuff right in the aisle, and presto! Porta-crib. The bulkhead seats had large drop-down shelves, upon which the porta-crib went, complete with a belting-in arrangement. I didn't know airlines would do all that. Maybe it's a British Air thing? The mother definitely looked surprised.
So, let's see. What since I got here? Well, last night Mike made five-spice lamb. If you're familiar with his About page, you'll know that it's listed as a possible favourite food. I can see why. I've never really had lamb before, so that was new too. Very nice.
No real trouble with jet lag yet again, although I did snooze for twenty minutes or so yesterday afternoon, and slept very late this morning. Consequently we haven't exactly accomplished much today, except a trip to Tesco's, which we did while we both had the munchies, oops. I drove there and back without incident, even though the way back was in near-dark and drizzle.
If you follow Mike's diary you'll have read that our nice new network is on the fritz at the moment, due to the sudden unexpected death of the network card in Mike's RISC OS computer. One consequence of this is that my new PC has no way to connect to the internet yet; it had been using Mike's as a proxy server. Therefore, in order to write and upload this entry, I'm actually doing it on the Risc PC, which is unfamiliar territory. I don't know where anything is yet, but I'm figuring it out. Oh, also, being now in the UK, I'm using a British keyboard, which you might not realize has a different key layout than an American one, so I'm hitting all the wrong keys. I think most of the difference is because they don't exactly require a $ symbol, but it's there anyway, so they put the £ above the 3, where we'd have the hash-mark, so it, in turn, has to go somewhere else...and you get a chain of key displacement as a result. Also the left Shift key is narrower (only one key wide), and the Enter key is smaller also. So I'm all over the place. But I'll get the hang of it. Fortunately the keyboards on the Risc PC and the new PC are identical, so I won't have to learn two slightly different keyboards as well...
Oh, and now that I'm in the UK, it seems appropriate that I should start using British spellings, so I shall. I'll also start putting entry times in military time, using metric units where they do, etc. It's all in furtherance of acclimatizing, you see.
Completed at 19:20
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Whoops, I completely forgot to do an entry last night. I started reading a Terry Pratchett book and got so lost in chuckling at it that everything else went out the window.
As expected, it gets dark about half an hour earlier here at the moment, and gets light a bit later as well. This is OK, because of course on the other end we'll get some absurdly long days. The weather at the moment is also quite mild, very April-like, but that won't last; it's expected to get colder by the weekend. There might even be a frost overnight. Imagine!
I've now had two days of working remotely and I have to say it's going pretty well. It will get a lot easier when the cable modem is hooked up, but unfortunately that's going to be two weeks. This house has never been wired for cable, so it's a little more involved than your average cable modem installation; they're going to have to run actual wires into the house, presumably from the street. Should be interesting. (The NetGear DSL/cable modem router/gateway device might arrive as early as tomorrow, though...)
Meanwhile, I'm connecting via modem when I have to; I'm limiting it as much as I can but H&A is still going to get a ghastly phone bill from me for these first few days. I'm trying to concentrate on doing things that are entirely remote, like working on the next version of my godawful macros, but there are some projects like the lab migration to NT that I left in limbo which can't be allowed to slide. In fact I spent a good chunk of today working on the lab migration; it's taking a lot of time partly because it keeps leading me to some very ugly questions about login scripts. I suppose I could just do a quick hack of a script and say good enough, but the problem is that Boston and the lab are very deeply intertwined, so I have to have something that will continue to allow Boston staff to log in at the lab smoothly, and vice versa. So, as long as I'm trying to do it the right way, I might as well consider the entire big picture of login scripts. Our other offices, being NT, have never had what you could call a proper login script; since NT has no built-in login script facility, they're using batch files, and therefore can't do much. But for the lab, I'm using a script utility, which gives me a few added features. Given that we're considering moving to a single-domain structure, the question of login scripts is going to become very important and rather tangled very soon; I'm trying to come up with a single login script that will work for all staff, in any office, and will also properly handle staff logging in at an office other than their own or dialing in via RAS. It's more complicated than you might think.
There's lots more that I'm doing, but I can't think what at the moment...
Completed at 22:13
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