Life - Moving Trials and Tribulations

I haven't posted about bikes in a while, and there are two reasons for this. One is the move - I'm simply exhausted and have no time or energy to ride. Given the choice between doing something related to the move or riding, I choose riding.

A second is a bit more straightforward - none of my bikes are here. My everyday bike, the carbon Giant, is sitting in the soon-to-be-sold house, along with my riding gear. The others are all sitting at my brother's house, waiting for me to pick them up.

With exhaustion comes some funny and somewhat inconvenient happenings. For example, I brought my work computer with me on the move. As you all know, the "computer" consists of more than just the box and a monitor. There is a keyboard, mouse, sound things, and various power supplies and such. My work computer is a dual flat screen setup with a booming sound system, a headset/mic (for Skype - which we use for work). So the flat screens have separate power supplies, the sound system has a bunch of wires, I have a headset/speaker switch (which involves wires), and I have my work set of phone charging things. I carefully packed it all and unpacked it all here at my other's office. Set things up. Only thing left?

Network cable.

At the townhouse. I drove back, got it, drove back. 25 feet long, just barely reaches the computer. The office here is not really internet connected - one centrally-located computer connects to the internet. The others are networked to a server, the whole thing being offline. So I took the one port available for the internet. Not a problem since the boss, the most avid internet user, wasn't due back from vacation.

About 5 minutes after I got things going, the boss walks in, two days early.

"Hey Aki, how's it going?"

Doh. I had to go get a router so both of us could use the internet at the same time.

Luckily I have three routers. Two are at the house. One is at the townhouse. So I went back to there, said hi to a chipmunk sitting on the steps. He darted between the steps and the building - of course I peered down there (there's about a 1 inch gap), scared said chipmunk who fled further down, laughed quietly at his self-perceived "stealthiness", and got the router. I was locking up when the keys dropped out of my hand.

Swished perfectly between the building and the steps, right down by the chipmunk's hiding spot.

Problem is that my hand is a bit wider than an inch. And the key was two feet down and a foot in.

I had to get online and working though so I left the keys there (luckily the truck keys weren't on the same ring).

Got back to the office. Reset the router (forgot the username/password), reset the network connections for my and the boss's computer, and got online. We had our daily handover call - and the internet connection burped (unbeknown to me, it was related to the lightning strike over the weekend). My boss (not the one who came back a couple days early) called me on my work cell. We continued the handover call.

Then my work cell died.

My boss called my on my personal cell. Asked why the work cell died. Didn't we get you two chargers, an extra battery, yada yada yada. Yes yes yes. I just haven't charged it since last week since I wasn't working from Friday evening through Sunday night.

I look around and realized at that time that, of course, my phone chargers were in the townhouse.

You know the one, it's the one with the keys in a crevice that would make a GI Joe climbing figure happy, maybe a chipmunk curious, but is perfect for keeping a key out of my grasp.

With the advent of plastic and wood hangers, the stylish wire hangers, the perfect implement for picking locked car doors and fishing keys out from tiny crevices, have disappeared. Even this non-internet office had no wire hangers.

I looked around and finally found something similar - the antenna to my little zippy RC cars (packed here as I had a couple on my desk at work). With a paper clip (they still use those) rubber-banded to the antenna, I had myself a little hook device.

Telescoping no less!

I went back, the chipmunk hid better than before, and I retrieved the keys. Checked the townhouse. Ends up I put the phone chargers in the van, with the thought that I'd use the in-vehicle plug adapter (allows you to plug in a wall charger into a device that plugs into the cigarette lighter). Of course that was in the future missus's car. That car was sitting at her mom's - she traded her car for the pickup truck. But I still had the chargers.

Anyway, I'm finally up and running. Even the phone lines being down (lightning over the weekend) somehow didn't affect the DSL at the office.

With the walk through a bit earlier than I anticipated, and a lot more stuff in the house (than I anticipated), I'm trying to get Wednesday off. I took Thursday and Friday off, the former to clean out whatever is left, the latter for the closing. The noon walk through means I have virtually no time Thursday so I really have to get things done before. That leaves... tomorrow.

And Friday, although I could have had the lawyer sign for me, I decided I really want to be there for the closing. It's my first sold house and I figure I want to pick up the check and deposit it into the bank.

Then ask for a printout of my account balance :)