Life Has Become A Never-Ending Project

Geez Louise, it's been 11 days since my last entry. That happens to coincide, more or less, with my loss of internet access at home. I'd use that as an excuse for my lack of posting, but since I rarely ever post from home, I guess I can't.

It's been a busy week-plus. I managed to pack pretty much everything I own before the movers got there last Friday. It wasn't the packing that took forever, it was the sorting. We decided it would be wise to keep similar things together to keep the box labeling simple and to make finding stuff at the new place easier. I'm already glad we did that, but it made for a few late nights at the old apartment.

We're in the new house now, and all is well. We did have an incident of sorts on Saturday night. We were awakened at 2:30 AM to the sounds of our neighbor's daughter screaming bloody murder. That's how we discovered how easily sound can go from one house to another (we're in a row house). We still don't know what was going on next door. My guess is that she was on something or drunk and just went to a weird place in her head. Since the bars close at 2, the timing would support that theory. Anyway, there was a lot of yelling between the mom and her daughter, and ultimately a guy in an SUV came and drove the two of them off somewhere. We saw the mom the next morning, and she welcomed us to the neighborhood and we talked to her a little bit about when trash pickup is and what recyclables get picked up what week. There was nothing said about the previous night. Let's hope it was a one-time thing. The screaming, not the friendly conversation.

So now we have to unpack all of our stuff. On top of that, I have to sort through all of the stuff I didn't get a chance to sort through at the apartment to determine what to throw away. A good portion of the boxes that got moved say "[category of thing, like school notebooks] to be sorted". That's my project. Throwing away most of the stuff I've held onto for the past couple of decades. I figure I can throw away my college notes, which take up an entire box by themselves. I kept that stuff before the Internet came along and made it easy to find that kind of info about 18th century European history and such. It was also pre-History Channel.

I might also have to throw away most of the artwork I did as a kid. Most of it is probably uninspired anyway. If I find the "Know Your Cats" picture I drew, however, that's getting saved. Among other things, it includes a tomcat and a bobcat saying "Hi Tom", "Hi Bob" to each other. Comedy gold!

I'm going to be without internet access at home until December 7. I switched to DSL from cable modem because Comcast pissed me off one or two too many times, and I decided to stick it to 'em. I would have switched to DirecTV too, if it wasn't for the fact that rain tends to break up the satellite signal. So I've got DSL, but for some reason, the service takes a while to get set up. So, while I may have Verizon dial-up service while I wait (I need to look through the DSL package I just got to confirm that), I won't have real internet service for another week. That will cut down on the distractions from my past purging project. Try saying that fast a few times. Peter picked a peck of pickles pondering his past purging project.

Also on the docket: Getting a Christmas tree. M and I have different upbringings on that subject. She always had a real tree with white lights. I always had a fake tree with multi-colored lights. I refused to budge on the lights thing, because I think just having white lights is far too sterile of a Christmas environment, but I relented on the nature of the tree. So we're picking out a tree from a friend's lot this weekend. We've already gotten the multi-colored lights. They have different blink-pattern settings, so I expect them to be super-sweet-cool.

Also: Finding and buying an entertainment console for the TV, DVD, CD and VCR. I had been using my Grandma's entertainment center that she had in Florida when she was still among us. It was big and bulky, but it got the job done. M thought it was hideous, so we had the movers move it directly to the dumpster. Now we have to get a new one. Most of the ones we've seen have the shelves for the various players positioned at the bottom of the unit, mere inches from the floor. First of all, I'm not as young and flexible as I used to be. Getting down onto the floor and having to get back up is somewhat inconvenient. Also, we may have a kid in the next few years, and I'd rather that my DVD player not be easily reached by someone far too young to know what does and does not go into a DVD player. But a shelf unit would off-center the whole TV-and-speakers setup. I suppose there are worse things to worry about. Just ask the people in Sudan.

So that's my life right now. Hopefully by the time Christmas rolls around, everything will be done, and I can go about enjoying our new place.