Moved!

This blog, as you can see, is no longer updated. I have my own domain and do the whole wordpress them now.

Head over to www.porthos.me to access the new and improved blogginess.

-Andy

Verily, moving sucketh.

Even the smoothest of moves is a painful, arduous process that drives men to the brink of madness.

This was not the smoothest of moves.

In the beginning, it was not so bad. One of our helpers didn't show up until and hour and fifteen minutes after we were originally planning on leaving, so we didn't get down to the old house until noon. But, we had more people helping than we thought we would, so I couldn't complain.

It took about 3 hours to get the truck loaded up. This is partially because we were all moving a bit slowly, and also because there was no way to get the truck close to the house. We had to traverse all the way down the walkway, to the curb, then into the truck. Over somewhat icy terrain in parts. I'm surprised no one fell and killed themselves.

I managed to totally kill my back carrying out about the 5th item, to the point where for 30 minutes or so all I could carry was the lightest of the light items. Eventually that went away (though I discovered later it hadn't left for good, merely gone into hiding.)

We ended up having to leave a few things and also leave the house a bit of a mess. I'm sure the landlord will be happy about that. We just don't have any way to get back down there right now to clean and clear out the last couple items. So I guess they get to keep the cleaning deposit and probably charge us a little extra. At this point, I don't care. I'm just glad to be the hell out of there.

About this point my wife has a mental breakdown and starts crying in the middle of McDonalds as we are trying to get some double cheeseburgers for the road. I think it was a combination of frayed nerves, major changes, and not much sleep, plus worrying about finances. Still, it makes me sad to see her upset.

So at this point we get back on the road and make the drive down. So far, nothing major has gone wrong, but things are definitely tense all around, just because we have so much crap and everyone is already exhausted.

We made it to our destination safely, and unloaded the 1/3 of the truck that is staying at the new place. This went off without a hitch. At least, until we tried to drive the truck again.

Ends up the truck was stuck in the wonderfully unplowed streets of our new neighborhood. It took 10 or 15 minutes of "forward - reverse - forward - reverse" to rock it out and continue down the road.

This is where things started to get really interesting. Apparently the storage unit we rented was not designed with 24 foot moving trucks in mind (which is dumb...it's a STORAGE UNIT. People are going to be bringing trucks.) After driving through the gate and attempting to turn a sharp corner we had a tense 15 minutes or so where I thought we were going to end up with the truck essentially wedged diagonally between two wall. Thankfully, we were able to get it back out without breaking anything, but we were still 50 yards from the storage unit.

We were finally able to go around, choosing a longer route, and get much closer, this did involve another sharp turn though. We were able to make the turn with about 1.5 feet of clearance between the front of the truck and a wall, and probably inches of clearance between the truck and a guide post. It was very intense, frightening, and stressful, but we did it.

So we finished the unloading, which took around 75 minutes or so. Then I had to back the truck up, turn it around, and go back out the way we came. Except now it was dark, and things were starting to freeze. We ended up making it just fine, but by the end my nerves were completely shot. I kept envisioning the truck just plowing right into someobody's storage unit.

So, 10 hours after we were originally supposed to start, and 9 hours after we actually did, we finally finish. All that's left is to take the truck back. Easy, right?

Well, I managed to screw that up. Got out of the truck, went to turn in the keys, and realized I'd just locked them in the truck. With the dome light on. It was an after hours drop off, so I just had to write a not to include with the contract, put it in the drop box, and leave. So now I'm not sure what will happen there. Will we have an extra charge for a locksmith and a jumpstart? Probably. If so, it won't go through though because at this point our bank accounts are both 0 or less. So good luck with that, truck rental guys.

*sigh*

It was a long, long day, and at times it felt like something out of Dante's Inferno. I'm glad it's over.

I'm not updating this much.

For one thing, it's hard to motivate myself to write when a) nothing exciting ever happens and b) about 3 people at the most read this, and that may be a generous estimate.

Currently, it's 2:52 am. I have been up since the crack of noon, which sounds lazy but I was up until 3 or 4 am last night as well. It's moving time, and we've been packing and moving stuff and taking things to Deseret Industries and oh my gosh my back is hurting and my muscles are sore and my brain is so fried that I can't use punctuation or pacing and my sentences just run on and on and on and...

Ahem. Sorry about that.

So yeah, we have to be up in a few short hour, but I can't bring myself to sleep. This house we've been renting has been my home ever since I moved to the lovely* state of Utah. It's old, it falling apart, it's poorly insulated, and I'm fairly sure that there is a unique and viable ecosystem in the basement. But it was cheap rent (which I need, because I'm FREAKING POOR) and it was HOME. It's funny how much emotion can be invested in what, ultimately, is a place to do 2 things: Sleep, and store all of your worthless shit.

It's almost disturbing, the amount of junk I have. Some of it is my wife's, sure. But the vast majority of it was either brought with me when I moved here, or accumulated in the last two years. I think I have a problem. I just really like THINGS. And the pile of boxes and disassembled computers and furniture and DVD shelves and the exercise equipment that was used religiously to workout for 3 months and then religiously used as clothes hangers and space-users for the next 12 and (I could go on but you get the idea) everything else proves this thing-lust of mine.

The end result of my thing-o-mania is that we'll have to rent the biggest truck possible and put tons of crap in storage until we figure out what to do with it. It's crazy. The amount of time and effort that this is causing is very much out of proportion with the true value of this STUFF. Sometimes I think I would very much like to live an almost Monk-like lifestyle...minus the religion and chastity anyway. It would definitely make moving easier.

*note - the state of Utah not really that lovely.

A rough patch

Things are going less than smoothly lately.

My migraines have been increasing in both frequency and intensity. This seems to happen when the season's change or the weather changes rapidly. Who knows why. I've heard theories that barometric pressure can cause changes in the vascular system of the skull/brain and trigger migraines. maybe there's some truth to that.

Earlier this week I went to start my car and it wouldn't start. Never a fun thing. I ended up walking to the store to get a battery charger that I really couldn't afford, and decided to get a battery post cleaner and clean the post up a bit too. When I took the positive terminal off to clean the post, the terminal just snapped right off the cable. Great. Back to the store, got a new terminal, put it on. Got the car working, hooray me. Did I mention that this whole experience was with a migraine? Try walking a couple miles in bright sunlight sometime with a migraine. It's a character-building experience.

The same day as the car thing, my good computer died. It just refuses to start up. I was having problems before but eventually it would cooperate. Now it's officially gone, I fear. When/If I ever got some cash in my pocket I'll be putting a new power supply in, which I think is the issue, but until then I'm running on my backup PC, which I purchased for like $400 dollars at Walmart. So that tells you what a quality piece of electronics it is, I'm sure.

Finances are tighter than ever, which I expect is true of many people in this downward spiral. It doesn't help that by the time taxes, insurance, benefits, and child support come out of my check, I see less than half of it. I used to get bigger checks working at a gas station.

There are some high points I suppose. Being married so far is beating the pants off of being single. And there is an offer on the table for my grandma's house, so it looks like that will be sold soon. I'm not sure how long after that until I see any inheritance money, but whatever and whenever, it will be most welcome.

That's about it for now. This is kind of a depressing, life sucks kind of emo-kid post, which I don't want you to think is 100% the case. I'm fairly happy, especially considering all the turds floating in the pool at the moment. Just felt like whining a little in written form. It always helps me feel better.

My pirate name is:

Black Roger Cash

Like anyone confronted with the harshness of robbery on the high seas, you can be pessimistic at times. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
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Nothings happening

Life is pretty boring right now.

I don't mind this, however. It means I get to play a bit of World of Warcraft and not have a lot of things I need to do.

All's Quiet on the Western Front.

Today was a decent day.

Although today turned out being pretty good, it didn't start that way.

I awoke in a worse-than-usual foggy haze of delirium and a general state of "whatever omnipresent or omnipowerful being that happens to rule this universe, PLEASE let me go back to bed for an hour or twenty."

In addition to this, my computer has been doing this little thing where it likes to frustrate me by not booting. Today it took 15 minutes of turning it off and on to get it to work.

Work had a bad habit of sucking today. Lots of calls, exasperated by me just feeling like I wished I could vanish. My wife was in a bad mood because we're slightly under financed at the moment and she thought she couldn't go down to see her newborn nephew and see her parents on Wednesday, which also happens to be her dad's birthday. So neither of us were happy campers, and we spent most of the morning scowling at each other and wishing things were different.

Then Jen went to work, and my work started slowing down a little (after a period where it got insanely busy for this time of year,) to the point where I was able to hop on World of Warcraft and level my lowbie Paladin to 20.

After work ended, I checked the mail and there was a happy surprise: my $600 stimulus payment from the IRS. So I was able to not be overdrawn, give Jen some money for her trip, and buy a UPS for my computer. Which meant I was happier, Jen was happier, and through some fluke, my computer has been booting perfectly. So I figure there are some crappy wiring issues in my house, and the UPS ensures constant and clean power. Hopefully that keeps up.

To top the night off, my buddy Dave ran me through some quests in WoW and I got a sweet weapon for my Paladin, as well as hitting 21.

Following this, I spent 20 minutes riding 5 miles on our exercise bike, and also I managed to keep myself under 1800 calories for the day, small victory there.

So, things ended much better than they started.

Now, here's some music I've been enjoying from Tegan & Sara: The Con.

Relief Next To Me