Once again, I managed to connect with many wonderful old friends in a variety of beautiful places. The Bay Area (I went from Carmel Valley to Santa Rosa) is a remarkable and wonderful place. The food is good, the views are stunning. Too bad so many people agree with me.
This year two of the many were hurting and that is hard to see. I hope that soon this won't be the case but I guess pain, illness, death are part of the package, and there ain't nothin I can do about it. My thoughts remain with you all, and I hope for rain without lightning to deal with some of that fire.
The Angel Island Picnic was a rousing success with the addition of more in the 20-something category. (Katie Scherbel brought along a whole slew of folks who seemed to enjoy themselves enough to agree to bring the keg next year!) Unfortunately a number of the regulars couldn't make it because of things like family reunions and children's activities. Enough excuses: next year's picnic will be on June 27 (wow that's late--remember: it's the Saturday after Father's Day), so put it on your calendar and show up.
We talked to a very nice candid ranger there about fixing the road to Perles Beach which has been washed out for several years, causing aging picnickers to have to vault down a steep hillside. We thought if we offered to find someone to fix the road and pay for it, we could get it fixed. Unfortunately FEMA is already on the case and the ranger said "So just like New Orleans, it's almost fixed..." or something like that. Sigh. Well, it's gonna get hard to get the truly aged down that hillside, but maybe when we are that far along, we will have other technology to aid us down. Until then...see you next year.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
The Last Lunch
A wonderful lunch took place on my last real day in Florida. (I spent some time there after, but it was well...a bit unreal...) It was totally fun to be surrounded by people I really like. I hope you can see the gift from Darla who had...well I can't tell you the whole story, but trust me, the gift is priceless (and it only cost $1 at Noah's Ark Thrift Store) and the reason behind it is even better...
too bad I look so tired...
Thursday, June 5, 2008
I survived moving!...well most of it.
I guess I have been talking about moving for so long that people assumed it was a done deal. It ain't so. I just can't do things fast I guess. Or I think I can't so I prolong them and then it drives me bats.
I packed for much of the month of May. My plan was to hire movers and do this like a grown-up and move at the end of June. A family friend in the business said that the end of June is the busiest time so rates are high and service isn't at its best, so I did what I always do--I did it myself. Well, I did hire two guys on this end to help load and one guy on the other to unload and that was a good thing. It actually all worked out remarkably well and I am relieved to be mostly moved before I go to California for a conference, lots of visits with friends and the 27th Annual Angel Island Picnic.
The guys I hired on this end were supposed to show up at 11 and when I called to confirm that on the morning of, the fellow said, "You were booked to move today? I thought you were just checking to see if I was available." Sigh. Well, he said he'd see what he could do and called back to say he'd be there mid-day then called mid-day to say he'd be here at 3:30 and then when he called at 3:30, he said it would be more like 5, all of this with plenty of excuses and suggestions that he was having a worse day than I was. He and his pal showed up at 5:17 and were done before 5:55 ('course, meanwhile, I had moved all the boxes to the garage so I wound up doing more than i had expected but it all worked out in the long run and as Gini pointed out, in the big picture, it will be a very minor blip).
I drove the 16' moving van up Highway 75, through Macon and Athens to 85 to Greenville SC (driving through parts of Greenville on a Friday evening is not recommended, in my humble opinion) and on up to North Carolina. It took about 15 hours and other than the frightening price of gas, it was painless. OK, I almost squished myself into a concrete barrier but other than that, it was pretty painless.
The following day I unloaded some stuff, ran some errands, and felt more tired than I have felt since our week of work in New Orleans. The day after that, a very handsome young man came by to unload the heavy stuff. He was great. And now, the bulk of my belongings are happily contained at a new location. Amazing.
The learning curve at this new home with a well, a propane tank, a septic system and oh there must be other stuff, is a bit steep right now. I have gas in the tank, but it isn't coming into the house. There must be a lever I need to pull but who knows where—and making coffee on the camp stove was kinda fun. I have been battling it out with an array of service providers to get phone, TV and internet and haven't successfully completed that task. I was supposed to have a phone last Monday but they lost the order. Don't ask. It's really bizarre. OK, you don't need to ask...here's the story:
I waited for the phone person to come hook up my phone—there had been some confusion as to whether s/he would show up between 8-12 or 1-4, so I hung out in the morning, zipped into town to do some errands, zipped back and hoped I didn't miss the event. Prior to hooking it up, I had a dial tone but got a fast busy when I dialed anything. On the day of, it went from busy to saying that all the numbers I dialed were out of order. I felt like I was getting somewhere...
By the end of the day (and the end of my time in NC), I had made no progress. I called the customer service number from the Atlanta airport. The VERY nice helpful woman said they had no record of my order--not under my name, the address, the order #, and the number I had been assigned had a different name on it...so I got angry, I cried, and Michelle (the VERY nice helpful woman) was close to tears herself--she said there had been some weird computer issues all day...so I said what do we do? And she said we start over. Name address date of birth SS# and I said NOPE I don't give that out over a public phone at an airport and by the way, I faxed a credit thing along with driver's license to the "welcome center." She said, AHA! So she called them and THEY HAD THE ORDER which did me no good as far as getting a phone but they approved me....again.
So in the meantime, she says, look at that! The number you were assigned is still available (huh?) (though they don't guarantee it til it's installed) and I said as long as we are having this conversation, I was told that they couldn't give me internet even though my neighbor has it. She said, oh yes you can so she signed me up for that and then I said, now what about TV? And she said, are you sure? Don't you wanna see how all this goes? Ha. So perhaps on June 26th at midnight I will have a phone--and maybe I won't. I am trying to think optimistically...but it can be harder than it looks sometimes.
I packed for much of the month of May. My plan was to hire movers and do this like a grown-up and move at the end of June. A family friend in the business said that the end of June is the busiest time so rates are high and service isn't at its best, so I did what I always do--I did it myself. Well, I did hire two guys on this end to help load and one guy on the other to unload and that was a good thing. It actually all worked out remarkably well and I am relieved to be mostly moved before I go to California for a conference, lots of visits with friends and the 27th Annual Angel Island Picnic.
The guys I hired on this end were supposed to show up at 11 and when I called to confirm that on the morning of, the fellow said, "You were booked to move today? I thought you were just checking to see if I was available." Sigh. Well, he said he'd see what he could do and called back to say he'd be there mid-day then called mid-day to say he'd be here at 3:30 and then when he called at 3:30, he said it would be more like 5, all of this with plenty of excuses and suggestions that he was having a worse day than I was. He and his pal showed up at 5:17 and were done before 5:55 ('course, meanwhile, I had moved all the boxes to the garage so I wound up doing more than i had expected but it all worked out in the long run and as Gini pointed out, in the big picture, it will be a very minor blip).
I drove the 16' moving van up Highway 75, through Macon and Athens to 85 to Greenville SC (driving through parts of Greenville on a Friday evening is not recommended, in my humble opinion) and on up to North Carolina. It took about 15 hours and other than the frightening price of gas, it was painless. OK, I almost squished myself into a concrete barrier but other than that, it was pretty painless.
The following day I unloaded some stuff, ran some errands, and felt more tired than I have felt since our week of work in New Orleans. The day after that, a very handsome young man came by to unload the heavy stuff. He was great. And now, the bulk of my belongings are happily contained at a new location. Amazing.
The learning curve at this new home with a well, a propane tank, a septic system and oh there must be other stuff, is a bit steep right now. I have gas in the tank, but it isn't coming into the house. There must be a lever I need to pull but who knows where—and making coffee on the camp stove was kinda fun. I have been battling it out with an array of service providers to get phone, TV and internet and haven't successfully completed that task. I was supposed to have a phone last Monday but they lost the order. Don't ask. It's really bizarre. OK, you don't need to ask...here's the story:
I waited for the phone person to come hook up my phone—there had been some confusion as to whether s/he would show up between 8-12 or 1-4, so I hung out in the morning, zipped into town to do some errands, zipped back and hoped I didn't miss the event. Prior to hooking it up, I had a dial tone but got a fast busy when I dialed anything. On the day of, it went from busy to saying that all the numbers I dialed were out of order. I felt like I was getting somewhere...
By the end of the day (and the end of my time in NC), I had made no progress. I called the customer service number from the Atlanta airport. The VERY nice helpful woman said they had no record of my order--not under my name, the address, the order #, and the number I had been assigned had a different name on it...so I got angry, I cried, and Michelle (the VERY nice helpful woman) was close to tears herself--she said there had been some weird computer issues all day...so I said what do we do? And she said we start over. Name address date of birth SS# and I said NOPE I don't give that out over a public phone at an airport and by the way, I faxed a credit thing along with driver's license to the "welcome center." She said, AHA! So she called them and THEY HAD THE ORDER which did me no good as far as getting a phone but they approved me....again.
So in the meantime, she says, look at that! The number you were assigned is still available (huh?) (though they don't guarantee it til it's installed) and I said as long as we are having this conversation, I was told that they couldn't give me internet even though my neighbor has it. She said, oh yes you can so she signed me up for that and then I said, now what about TV? And she said, are you sure? Don't you wanna see how all this goes? Ha. So perhaps on June 26th at midnight I will have a phone--and maybe I won't. I am trying to think optimistically...but it can be harder than it looks sometimes.
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