It came early! Merry Christmas to me!
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No desk. No desk chair. Just a comfy Poang and some shelves. I think I still need a small table to hold a drink and a snack, and probably a footstool. This will probably result in me spending more time in my actual assigned space. For the last nine months or so I spent most of my time as a nomad, working from comfy chairs in lounges or coffee shops across the work campus.
TARDIS Blue 2003 Ford Windstar 100% her choice. May she use it for good, not for evil. May she use it in wisdom. May she use it in peace. May she not run out of gas.
Well, Alex was actually sick last week. Over the weekend he got better and everybody else got sick. Nice hacking coughs, stuffy head, all the fun stuff. Woo!
Those of you who listened to the November 13th Curmudgeon’s Corner know this, but my criteria were basically:
Those of you who listened to the show know that Ivan’s top five he thought I should look at were the Honda Fit, Ford Focus and Fiesta, VW Golf and the Hyundai Alantra and that I should avoid Subaru, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Mazda. Well… I obviously didn’t quite take his advice (although I did consider it). I ended up looking at the VW Golf, Honda Fit, Ford Focus, Mazda 3 and the Subaru Impreza. I was not impressed by any of them except the Impreza. The Honda Fit was probably second in my ranking of those that I looked at. But I liked the Impreza a lot more. Now, admittedly, I’d been eyeing the Impreza for probably the last year. (Before that I’d been thinking Subaru Outback, and before that I’d been thinking Mini Cooper, and before that who knows… that takes me back 5 or 6 years in my “what if my Saturn dies now” thought process.) Anyway, after checking out all of them, and reading tons of stuff online about a bunch of them, I liked the 2012 Impreza a lot. It met all of my criteria. And I liked the looks of it. And a quick test drive on Sunday didn’t dissuade me. I could have gotten a 2012 Impreza under my 20k goal, but of course I didn’t. I had to pick the model with all the bells and whistles and stuff, which ended up putting the MSRP just barely under my 25k limit. Brandy says this means I may have to give up my thoughts of an iPad 3 for Father’s Day, and give up various other things to not screw us budget wise. Sigh. Oh well. We’ll see how that works out. They don’t have lots of these in stock yet, so I did a factory order. 6-8 weeks for delivery. So end of January or beginning of February. Unless by chance one with the exact same specs, colors and options as I ordered becomes available sooner. Next up, a used car for Amy which is big enough to hold her double bass but is still relatively cheap and probably still has five or six years left in it before it dies. (I never thought I’d be the kind of parent who would get their kid a car within months of them turning 16, but oh my goodness it will make our daily logistics so much easier if all three of us can get to the places we need to get to independently without having to constantly coordinate schedules and commutes…) Amy will probably have her car within the next week or so, long before I get mine. But I get to drive it until she actually goes in to the DMV and passes her driving test to get her actual driver’s license instead of a permit. Now I wait for my new car.
And the next day, on Thursday, I video chatted some with Amy (and a little with Brandy). Amy did not talk about cars and trucks and trains though. Instead it was about some boy who was mean to her several grades ago, but was now asking for help with some school project or something. Fun stuff. This video conference was more exciting, because the Seattle side was mobile from an iPhone as they were driving down the highway or some such. And everything still worked just fine. Mostly. Fun stuff. Meanwhile, it is now Saturday. My work stuff here is done, but my plane doesn’t actually leave until tomorrow evening. So I’ve got some time to do stuff. What stuff that will be is of course unknown. In any case, leaving the hotel for a bit now. Woo!
On Wednesday I spent 20 minutes sitting in my hotel in Iasi, Romania video chatting with Alex who was at my house in Everett, Washington, USA… just about 5630 miles away. Just a few years ago this would not have been something I could have done. (At least not practically and at essentially no cost.) Alex spent most of the 20 minutes showing me various of his toys and telling me about all the cars, trucks and trains and what they were doing. He also told me how one toy was in the car, and he asked mommy to let him go back to the car to get it, but she wouldn’t. Of course, anybody outside our family watching the video wouldn’t be able to tell all of that was being talked about, but to me what he was saying made perfect sense. :-) Later, he went to get the dog and the leash, and brought them both to the computer and asked if I would go with him to walk the dog, which I do with him regularly. Sadly, technology hasn’t progressed quite that far yet. Maybe in a couple more years. Then when I said I had to say goodbye, he said “NO NO NO!” and closed the lid of the laptop, thus ending the video call. If he was trying to make sure I didn’t actually say “Goodbye” he succeeded. If he was trying to make me stay and keep talking to him, well… he is only two. :-)  Well, at the airport with my boarding passes in hand anyway. It will be a few hours until my first flight actually takes off.
As of very close to right now, 2011 Oct 21 at 02:29 UTC (7:29 PM on the 20th Pacific time) Amy is officially exactly 16 years old. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!! I’m guessing she’ll want a car now. :-)  A 26 foot truck the first weekend. One trip to empty our storage space, one to start moving the actual house. Second weekend a 16 foot truck. Two trips. Third weekend another 16 footer. We ended up keeping for it over a week instead of the scheduled 48 hours so we could just finish. At least three trips. Maybe more. At some point we lost count. But now everything is moved. The old house is empty. Maybe now I can sleep? |
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