Sunday, December 10, 2000

o, I'm sitting here, relatively glad that I brought my computer in my car, since the movers didn't deliver yesterday as promised... in fact, they haven't even called. I'll wait till tomorrow, and call them to see what's going on. At least I have a 28.8 connection to the internet via AOL, due to some thought before I left Saint Charles.

A brief history is probably worthwhile... The movers came on Tuesday, and picked up all my stuff in the apartment by 1PM, and we then went over to grab the rest of my stuff that was stored in Suz's basement. They finished up around 3:30, and Suz made me a wonderful lunch, before I had to go back to the apartment to give the keys to the person who will clean it up and give the keys to the office for me. So, I finally got on the road around 5PM, right when it was getting dark. Seemed appropriate, as I had come into town in the dark several years ago, and left under the same circumstances. Other than an accident about 5 miles past Six Flags on I-44, it was fairly uneventful. I got through the Branson area, and over in Oklahoma fairly easily, but was fascinated by the signs that said "Do Not Drive Into Smoke" It wasn't until after I had entered the Cherokee Nation that I saw off to the left someone burning his fields, causing a lot of smoke. It seemed odd to me, at 9:30 PM, about 4 hours after dark, to have someone doing their burning, but it may have been burning since noon, for all I know. I made it to Clarendon, OK by 10PM, and stopped off at a Motel, falling asleep to thoughts of Will Rogers, who had apparently come from the town.

Getting up early, I got on the road by 9AM, and headed down to Oklahoma City to hop onto I-40 West. It had snowed lightly overnight, and I had to clear some vestiges of ice from my windows, and it snowed lightly on me for about 20 minute until I got on the highway. I stopped for a quick rest after popping into Texas, and called my parents to tease them about the fact I was in the same state as they were, but wasn't coming to see them. Driving on, I fueled up in Amarillo, and made myself a sandwich from the Roast Beef that Suz had kindly sent me. Talk about a perfect sandwich for the road (or anywhere!). I traveled on into New Mexico, finally stopping in Gallup for the night.... apparently right next to the train tracks! I heard trains all night long that sounded like they were coming straight through my room.

Getting up in the morning, I drove to Holbrook, NM (Holbrook is my mother's family name) and stopped to get lunch at a McDonalds. So, I ordered my usual (#3 with no cheese). When I got to the window, they handed me some McMuffinish type thing, and I suddenly realized that it wasn't 11AM anymore, it was 10AM :) Chalk one up for the goober! I drove on to Kingman, AZ, where I stopped for gas and another one of Suz's killer sandwiches, before heading across the final desert into California.

I ended up driving into the apartment complex about 6PM, just an hour after the office closed, so I called my friend John, and asked him if I could crash at his apartment for the night, or 3. He of course said yes, so I drove to the office and met him, and he led me to his home in Carlsbad, CA.

For those of you who know him, John is a generous person, and was quite kind in lending me his couch. Of course, I was struck by the ingenuity of his set up for his entertainment center, as I've been searching for a way to replace mine with something a bit less long, and a bit taller and more changeable. I found that his concoction of glass block and painted wood seems to be the ideal solution, and easy to build. You can see a few pictures of it here, here, and here. They're fairly large pictures (360K each) so if you're on a slow connection, prepare to wait :) I've decided that I want to build something quite like this, so I've already scoped out where the local Home Depot is, and just need to find somewhere that I can do the painting, and I should be set. Of course, I'll need to have stuff to put on it... but that's a comment for later.

In any case, on Friday morning, I drove over to my apartment complex to see if they'd be able to slip me in any earlier than Saturday, with my expectation being that the furniture would arrive on Saturday, and I wanted to be in the place and ready for them when they did arrive! They were still cleaning and painting, but told me that if I showed up around 3 or 4 PM, it should be ready. I drove to the office again, to see if I could get all the paperwork settled, and found that the HR department was busy doing Open Enrollment meetings, and didn't have time for me. So, I drove around the office park, figuring out where streets went, how I'd be getting to the office, and the like. I finally drove back to John's apartment, got my stuff that I'd left there, and drove back to Escondido to my apartment complex. After a bit of hemming and hawing (sp?), they got me into my apartment and I started hauling stuff up. Now, the fact is, I'm on the fourth floor... and while they do have an elevator, I happen to be in the apartment that is furthest from the elevator. So, half the time I took the stairs, and only used the elevator for the heavy things (like the monitor for my computer).

I finally pooped out about 9PM, and set up the PC so I could play a game or two before crashing, which I did in short order.

Getting up Saturday, I parked myself next to the phone, waiting for the movers to call and tell me they were on there way. At 7 PM, I finally gave up, and connected my modem to the computer, and set up AOL to dial out.

This morning, I read some more of the documentation, and found that the movers are supposed to call 24 hours in advance of delivery, so I guess I'll just go on to work tomorrow, while going out today to watch the Redskins play, and getting my cell phone repaired (which seems to have broken just as I pulled into Escondido... I can no longer hear people, but they can hear me).

This is long enough... more later.