The most confusing event of my life

18. July 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Amherst, Connecticut, moving

This week has been among the most confusing of my life. I have been dealing with, among other things, living by myself, assisting my wife with Richmond home sale activities, to the best of my ability from afar, managing a home inspection, well inspection, termite inspection, down payments, credit union communications issues, post office challenges, transferring funds, HUD settlements, and an ever increasing work load. It’s really too much. However, I am by myself again this week to deal with this. I’ve not been sleeping well, not eating well, and now am sitting in the dark. What a way to end the most confusing week of my life.

When I went to have the bank check written for the 2nd portion of the down payment on the CT home on Thursday, the bank’s network was down. Of course. It hadn’t been down for over a year. However, I will give all credit due to the credit union. They had every person possible jumping on the situation, trying to figure it out for me. The VP of Operations for the Credit Union walked the process through, wiring the money to the brokerage firm that is managing the sale in CT. No charge for the wire, of course, and everyone babysat the process to get it through. This is the reason why I have been, and will remain, a loyal credit union customer. The fact that my current credit union is literally 3 floors below where I sit helps make it so convenient. We are using them for our mortgage, even if we refinance when the market corrects itself.

It feels like I have worked little this week, when I have actually worked a great deal. One of my main co-workers left last Friday after several years on the job. I took over all of her open projects — close to 25 of them. That, in addition to the 18 or so of my own, makes for a really big workload. It’s not that I can’t handle it, but it’s tough right now with all of the things going on (see the first paragraph). Tomorrow, I need to find a place to do some laundry, spend a few hours doing at least the basic laundry, drive 40 minutes to work so I can spend 4 hours or so catching up on my open projects, and spend at least an hour charging my work to various projects. Sunday, I need to pack what I am taking for a few days since my family will be in CT late on Monday, so I will have to get ready for work Tuesday in a hotel in CT. Tomorrow, I need to at least do enough laundry that I can make it through Wednesday or Thursday.

One additional factor is that the laundry service that we have in the office has been closed all week, so I have only a few things left to wear for work without ironing. This will be tough, considering I don’t have an iron! I found a local cleaner this week that has a few items of mine now, so will pick them up tomorrow (hoping that they are ready when promised).

To top it all off, about 3 hours ago, we had a storm rip through Amherst, taking down a tree that landed across all three of the power lines running on my street. So, I am sitting in the dark, with 46% battery, figuring out what I can do until the power comes back on. The rain brought some cooling, but without fans, this is going to be a long, hot night. I think I will conserve energy soon and hit the hay, getting up early enough to start the wealth of tasks ahead of me tomorrow. At least I have an iPod with a few hours of battery remaining!

A quick walk to the conservation area

06. June 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Amherst, Massachusetts

Today, I moved all of my MA-based possessions to the room I am renting for July and August. No real idea of how long I will be here, but at least for the next couple of weeks. After getting my very full Camry unloaded, I took a quick walk down the road. I knew that there was a “conservation area” down the road, but had no idea what that meant specifically. What I found, was a very large, unspoiled area with walking paths that are also bike paths when they are dry. The tree-covered canopy is lovely. The water pictured above runs inside of the area. There is a foot bridge that covers the water and that bridge is maybe a two minute walk from the house. Of course, this picture was taken from that bridge, otherwise I would have gotten quite wet taking it! There are a bunch of black flies there, so I used a bug repellant on my second visit and wasn’t overly bothered at all by the flies.

After one of the most stressful weekends of my life, this was a great way to start to unwind. Now where is that bottle of scotch I bought?

Short term move

05. June 2008 · Write a comment · Categories: Amherst, hotel, Massachusetts, moving

Packing for a short term move is a pain. I do get to figure out just how much stuff can fit in my Camry. If it’s too much for one trip, then I get to add more than an hour to my trip (40 minutes each way plus unpacking the entire first load and packing the second load). Of course, I need to do all of this by noon (or 1 PM for a late checkout). Tomorrow is the first move.