dsandler.org

Just finished clearing out a couple of boxes full of computer crap (so labeled, in fact) that I’d been schlepping around for a couple of moves now. Seriously, how did I accumulate all this stuff?

• seven standard computer power cords
• automobile tire valve extenders, pk. of 4 (not strictly computer-related but still quite random)
• serial cables:
  • 9-pin to 9-pin
  • 9-pin to 25-pin
  • 25-pin to 25-pin
  • 25-pin to mini-DIN-9
• PowerBook 1400 Disk Tools disk (two copies?!)
• product documentation (Getting Started, ClarisWorks, …) and other freebie inserts (AOL, circa 1998!) from an original iMac (again, at least two copies, which is odd, because I never owned even one)
• stack of ~100 static-cling color Apple logo auto window decals (old-skool!)
• Zip drive (SCSI)
• SCSI cables:
  • 25-pin
  • 68K-PowerBook era HDI30-to-25-pin L-adapter
  • centronics-50 (which connects to nothing I own)
• Modems:
  • 14.4 kbps, US Robotics
  • 33.6 kbps, Lucky Generic Brand
• Weird-ass PB5xx video adapter (weird low-profile port to old-skool Apple Display port)
• Other stuff I can’t remember now

And that was just one box.

Exhausted.

So, we have furniture. Beyond that, we’ve got about six plastic cups, a bunch of towels, and our cats. The rest of the move happens this weekend—the little odds and ends and endless boxes that will, in E’s words, make us “Zeno’s movers”.

(Also: Is it a sign of some subliminal reluctance to bond with the new place that I’ve been here for about six hours and have just now thought to take my shoes off?)

dsandler-lan is down for the first time in years, and for the last time in Pearland. Hopefully we’ll be back up by noon tomorrow.

Random notes from this (very busy) week:

We’ve rented a place up in town. It’s sort of Midtown South, or Museam District East, depending on how you look at it. If you drive past a nice old building with the word “GRANDA” on the front in tile, that’s us.

The apartment’s not big enough for all our stuff, of course (especially since we kept having to acquire more stuff to fill the house up enough to be attractive enough to sell). We’re starting to sell off our old furniture on Houston Craigslist (which is a lot more active than it was last year around this time). If you’re in H-town and want bookshelves or a beautiful drafting table, get in touch.

The first casualty: Our kitchen table and chairs, which we bought in Boston for our first apartment, in 1999 California for our second apartment, in 2000. [Update 4/22: E reminds me that in Boston we had a built-in banquette outside the kitchen, so we had no need for a table; when we got to California we had to break down and get one.] We sold it to a couple of nice Rice kids who appreciated the deep satisfaction I got from Tetris-ing the entire set into their Mazda 6.

E is up in Dallas this weekend visiting K, who is due some time next month. That means I have the weekend to catch up on Battlestar Galactica. (Which means I already blew through the remaining episodes of the season tonight. Good fracking stuff.)

So, there you go. Just so you know I didn’t fall in a hole, or something.

Santa Fe. Cats are eating better tonight; I suppose they’re getting accustomed to this chaos we’re subjecting them to daily.

Then again, they are still hiding under the furniture.

Some more neat pictures today, including a couple of wide-angles from the AZ side of the Hoover Dam.

D: They sure don’t make public works like they used to.
E: Or, at all.

Ugh. We are exhausted. I don’t know which was worse about sleeping at the apartment last night: the hard floor, or the miserable cold? As usual, the heater was unable to keep the apartment above 65°, but I only held one blanket in reserve for us. Brr.

And, on our very last morning, just as we were about to leave, we were screwed one last time by our car-juggling neighbors. We had just put the cats in the car, too, when our neighbors started solving the Towers of Hanoi with their noisy old jeep and a brand-new Mercedes (another family member—just moved in!). Totally freaked the cats out; great way to start a long trip.

But, like Mr. John says, this train don’t stop there anymore.

After arriving in Vegas, E and I got to hang out with my brother and his fiancée a little. (We took in a stirring rendition of “My Heart Will Go On” by the fountains at the Bellagio. E remarks that the fountains effectively let them have fireworks four times an hour, year-round!)

A very, very sleepy end to trip 2, day one.