Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Two days left

Got a fair amount of packing done yesterday, I was able to fit all my suicide statistics data into those six white boxes - essentially a seven foot tall stack of photocopies.

I'm going to scale back to a 10 foot truck from the 16 foot truck, because I'm pretty sure that will hold everything I need, and then some.

One of the orange computers came. It is so cute! Now I just have to figure out how to get it to connect to the internet...

Had a delightful dinner with Martin last night. Tonight it's a cookout at Duncan's, and Wednesday night, I think I'll be too frazzled to do anything.

Another day of packing ahead!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Three Days Left

Got the medicine cabinet installed in the closet yesterday - don't ask, it's a long story.

Spent most of yesterday weeding through papers, deciding what to recycle, and trying to sort the rest into broad categories: thesis prep/followup, historical urban/rural suicide, interesting epi articles, important financials, and family & friends.

Still only got through one room, so from today on, I will have to stop sorting, and just start recycling (or boxing things up).

Had a swell dinner with Marc last night, and then we went to watch the Simpsons movie. A pretty good laugh, which was just what I needed.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Beach Day!

Had a great breakfast with Sally this morning. She brought a load of old (and new) epidemiology textbooks. It feels as though a small part of her legacy was being passed to me, it's such an honor to have been influenced by her for 20 years. I hope I can carry forward her passion for teaching and learning while never losing sight of the importance of promoting human dignity.

Daniel called later in the morning - it looked like it might be a good beach day. Well, it was a great beach day. As you can see, we practically had it to ourselves. The water was a bit warm for my liking, but pleasant nonetheless.

My head is still a little logy from sunstroke, but it's time to get back to clearing things out and boxing them up.

Six, no Five, Days Left


Celebrated Duncan's birthday last night, definitely a bittersweet moment.

I've got to force myself to put these tools away, to focus on purging and packing. It will all happen somehow! At least I'm done with the closet for now.

Yesterday Patti gave me a very nice send-off from the Center for Environmental Studies, we had lunch at the Vietnamese place down the street, and a great conversation about how things are changing at Brown.

Today starts with brunch with Sal (who has a bunch of books I can pillage!), then I'll put the finishing touches on the closet, and try to tackle purging the third floor.

Tuna definitely knows something is up. She's been sticking very close to me. It's very sweet. She's really starting to show signs of arthritis now, but it's still early in the process. She still loves running and swimming, but jumping has become a struggle.

I may have a travel companion from Chicago to Missoula, which would be awesome. Seems like a nice fellow. I think I'd like to take a far north route, from Chicago to Madison, Mineapolis, then Grand Forks, and along route 2 (or is it 4?) to Minot near the Canadian border. Spent time with an atlas trying to map out the route from Missoula to San Francisco, any suggestions? Beauty>speed. I can't drive the truck that fast, anyway.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

One week until I load up my life in a truck

Well, the preparations continue... today I finished painting the front stairs, they'll need a few more days to set. I also got a full coat of paint up in the closet, on the walls & ceiling. I'm high off the fumes!

At work, I set up a backup process that will take overnight. Tomorrow, I'll pack up what bits of the office remain here and ship them to Berkeley! Quite a milestone.

Had my last therapy session today, it was a sweet farewell. If anyone reading this needs a good referral, let me know.

I made my first foray into the wide world of E-Bay today, and bought a macintosh laptop (the old clamshell version, they're so pretty). I figured that would be the easiest way to transfer pictures up here for y'all to see. I actually bought two, in case one is a dud. They were cheap enough. And both orange ('scuse me, tangerine). I need to have some orange around now that Duncan's out of commission. Poor guy. Everyone out there send healing vibes, OK?

I'm planning a more direct route (sort of) now, packing everything into the moving truck on Thursday the 2nd of August, going to Bradford, VT on the 3rd, Schohaire, NY for a family reunion on the 4th. Then I want to go to Ithaca on the 5th, heading off either across Canada to Detroit, or the southern route through Cleveland, to land in Ann Arbor on the 6th.

Chicago on the 7th, if all goes well, then Madison, and maybe as far as Minneapolis on the 8th. Then, on through the Dakotas, somehow, with a northerly trend to take me into Montana. Hoping to get through Montana by the 11th or 12th, then one of two possible routes: any suggestions?
From Missoula, could go West through Spokane to Portland and south along the coast, or I could cut down through Idaho and Nevada, and the last leg would be Reno to Sacramento to San Fran. Hoping to arrive on the 14th, because the truck is due for return on the 15th. It will be a stretch, but I think I can do it.

Especially if I can get some help along the way. I put up an ad on Craig's list looking for a rideshare on various legs of the journey. We'll see if I can scrounge up a companion or two. It's like e-hitching. How exciting!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Another day


Got another coat of paint on the front steps, and finished painting the front door today.

Cleared out most of one of the bedrooms, in preparation for taking down the ceiling.

Got an interesting email from Tony about his upcoming article on the supervirus hype, tried to put together a few cogent thoughts about gay men's health, epidemiology, & scare tactics, etc.

Dinner with David and Martin was good last night. Too much food! But Red Ginger is such a great restaurant. About to meet Jason for dinner tonight. Looking forward to lunch with Tim and Daniel tomorrow, and dinner with Sal on Friday.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

We're off to San Francisco (soon)




Two weeks and two days from moving day, August 2nd.

I'm hoping to be able to put up pictures and random thoughts as Tuna and I travel cross country, and get settled into San Francisco.

Today, I edited the methods section for a paper I'm writing with Rachel, finished priming the closet, and put a second coat of paint on the outside steps, and two coats of paint on the front door. The color is lighter than I want, but it ends up looking OK, I think.

Soon, I should start packing!

It now looks very likely that Duncan won't be able to join us, which is a bummer. We'll have to take a much shorter and more direct route. I'm hoping to hit Bradford, Schohaire, Ithaca, Toronto, Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Montana. Beyond that, who knows???