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Update on the Move...
14 years ago
☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢ CAUTION: FALLOUT ZONE ☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢☢
Heyo! So, I finally got moved... it's bee a fun, crazy and hectic few days. I still have a lot to do before I'm settled, and more than 24 hours after setting up my bed at the new house, I still haven't begun unpacking my computer... but let's start from the beginning.
Saturday was final packing day. I already had my laundry and closet cleaned out from the week before, and tools and stuff gathered up from all around the house and garage. Saturday I boxed everything else and loaded it into the closet. It took about half an hour to break down my bed, and then 2 hours to pack up m computer at the end.
I did not sleep well... Saturday night... got maybe 4 hours of sleep, supplemented with plenty of energy drink in the AM. Sunday morning I got up at 9, and was on the road on my motorcycle by 10, arriving in Brooklyn Park at the new house with just enough time to set up my laptop and put a cover on my motorcycle before my mom arrived to drive me back to St. Cloud to pick up my car and belongings. Being Mother's Day, our plan for a simple lunch together very quickly got derailed into waiting at Olive Garden for my little brother and my mom's new friend to arrive... and then waiting even longer for a table and food. There was good food, and I was happy to see my brother again and have a chance to chat with him and one of his friends that had tagged along, but it did set me back about 2 hours on my moving schedule. Mom's friend brought a full size van to haul stuff in, so we left my mom's Forester at the restaurant and drove up to St. Cloud in that.
Just as we were getting off the freeway, the serpentine belt tensioner of the van broke, and we rushed to the house without power steering while the engine overheated... spent another hour or so under the hood of the van and on the phone trying to find a store somewhere that was open on Mother's Day and had the part we needed. Thankfully we found the part, and
jolyzjackal was able to replace it, and we were able to load the van up and drive it back.
We got back to the new house in Brooklyn Park and finished unloading stuff at around 9 PM. One of my new roommates was able to help me get my bed set up again, saving a lot of time there, but it turns out setting up the computer was not going to happen. I had known that the new room did not have grounded outlets, and had come prepared with grounded outlets to install, allowing me to plug in all my extension cords, power strips, and computer... what I did not know, was that the house lacked any grounding whatsoever to ground the new outlets to. The electrical conduits was plastic, which seemed very odd for a house more than 40 years old, so I couldn't ground them to the conduit, either. The builders of the house seemed determined to do as many weird new things with the electrical as they could, as even the lightswitches were nonstandard--they operated a 12v DC relay to a circuit box in the basement which then individually rerouted power to the light fixtures in the house when the switches were pressed. Overall, new house is an electrical catastrophe, and I don't trust any of the wiring, so, tomorrow, I'm going to go get some new GFCI outlets and wire the ground to the neutral lines, and should hopefully (knock on wood) have my computer set up by tomorrow night.
As for today, I managed to get a wireless signal from a house across the river using my cantenna, and leech internet off of them until the homeowner could get around to installing my router. There's some inconvenience here with the fact that the circuit breaker, modem, router, et. al., are in his room, so unfortunately doing the electrical work will require more than his blessing, and should we have any problems with the modem or router we'll need to wait on him to reset it.
As of now, I've finished unpacking my clothes and closets, setting up the router and wireless networks, setting up the wireless network printer and NAS, and fixing up one of my housemates' computers and configuring it for network printing and backups.
The housemates here seem cool. One was a long career type with 15 years at corporate before the recession hit, and now he's been working at walmart for 2 years... he's old enough to be my dad, but fairly laid back and progressive, and likes having me around to share beer, music and technology resources. The other is closer to my age, haven't talked with him much other than to set up the wireless network so he can connect his macbook, as he hasn't been around a lot. The homeowner is an aircraft mechanic, and currently watching O'Reilly in the livingroom... he starts tons of home projects but takes his time in finishing them, so it can be like pulling teeth to get certain things (like the electrical) fixed. He's pretty alright, though, and I suspect we'll get along fine once the hassle of settling in has passed.
I hope to have all of the unpacking done by Wednesday night, which will give me 2 days to get rolling on the job search here. I've already secured some resources for that, and the market here looks much better, as does the workforce center. Saturday, I'll be at the
MNFurs picnic, though I won't be bringing anything this year ( 
ottah notwithstanding, hopefully), since I'm effectively flat broke after that move.
Saturday was final packing day. I already had my laundry and closet cleaned out from the week before, and tools and stuff gathered up from all around the house and garage. Saturday I boxed everything else and loaded it into the closet. It took about half an hour to break down my bed, and then 2 hours to pack up m computer at the end.
I did not sleep well... Saturday night... got maybe 4 hours of sleep, supplemented with plenty of energy drink in the AM. Sunday morning I got up at 9, and was on the road on my motorcycle by 10, arriving in Brooklyn Park at the new house with just enough time to set up my laptop and put a cover on my motorcycle before my mom arrived to drive me back to St. Cloud to pick up my car and belongings. Being Mother's Day, our plan for a simple lunch together very quickly got derailed into waiting at Olive Garden for my little brother and my mom's new friend to arrive... and then waiting even longer for a table and food. There was good food, and I was happy to see my brother again and have a chance to chat with him and one of his friends that had tagged along, but it did set me back about 2 hours on my moving schedule. Mom's friend brought a full size van to haul stuff in, so we left my mom's Forester at the restaurant and drove up to St. Cloud in that.
Just as we were getting off the freeway, the serpentine belt tensioner of the van broke, and we rushed to the house without power steering while the engine overheated... spent another hour or so under the hood of the van and on the phone trying to find a store somewhere that was open on Mother's Day and had the part we needed. Thankfully we found the part, and
jolyzjackal was able to replace it, and we were able to load the van up and drive it back.We got back to the new house in Brooklyn Park and finished unloading stuff at around 9 PM. One of my new roommates was able to help me get my bed set up again, saving a lot of time there, but it turns out setting up the computer was not going to happen. I had known that the new room did not have grounded outlets, and had come prepared with grounded outlets to install, allowing me to plug in all my extension cords, power strips, and computer... what I did not know, was that the house lacked any grounding whatsoever to ground the new outlets to. The electrical conduits was plastic, which seemed very odd for a house more than 40 years old, so I couldn't ground them to the conduit, either. The builders of the house seemed determined to do as many weird new things with the electrical as they could, as even the lightswitches were nonstandard--they operated a 12v DC relay to a circuit box in the basement which then individually rerouted power to the light fixtures in the house when the switches were pressed. Overall, new house is an electrical catastrophe, and I don't trust any of the wiring, so, tomorrow, I'm going to go get some new GFCI outlets and wire the ground to the neutral lines, and should hopefully (knock on wood) have my computer set up by tomorrow night.
As for today, I managed to get a wireless signal from a house across the river using my cantenna, and leech internet off of them until the homeowner could get around to installing my router. There's some inconvenience here with the fact that the circuit breaker, modem, router, et. al., are in his room, so unfortunately doing the electrical work will require more than his blessing, and should we have any problems with the modem or router we'll need to wait on him to reset it.
As of now, I've finished unpacking my clothes and closets, setting up the router and wireless networks, setting up the wireless network printer and NAS, and fixing up one of my housemates' computers and configuring it for network printing and backups.
The housemates here seem cool. One was a long career type with 15 years at corporate before the recession hit, and now he's been working at walmart for 2 years... he's old enough to be my dad, but fairly laid back and progressive, and likes having me around to share beer, music and technology resources. The other is closer to my age, haven't talked with him much other than to set up the wireless network so he can connect his macbook, as he hasn't been around a lot. The homeowner is an aircraft mechanic, and currently watching O'Reilly in the livingroom... he starts tons of home projects but takes his time in finishing them, so it can be like pulling teeth to get certain things (like the electrical) fixed. He's pretty alright, though, and I suspect we'll get along fine once the hassle of settling in has passed.
I hope to have all of the unpacking done by Wednesday night, which will give me 2 days to get rolling on the job search here. I've already secured some resources for that, and the market here looks much better, as does the workforce center. Saturday, I'll be at the
MNFurs picnic, though I won't be bringing anything this year ( 
ottah notwithstanding, hopefully), since I'm effectively flat broke after that move. 
Otters count as bringing something, anyway. Next time you have to bring a box full of chirping IRL ones, though.
You may have better luck bringing money to donate for food than food itself, because there won't be a lot of space for luggage on the bike. In fact if you want to bring a laptop or something you'll probably need to fit it in my backpack (there should be room)