Voxdan

It's 4:30...

…in the morning.

Well, the movers are gone.  It took a bit longer than it was supposed to, but about 6:30 last night the truck left, and so did I.  The moment was entirely unemotional.

I had shipped the kids off with Ali around four-something and finished the last couple of hours by myself.  It turned out that flipping off the light switch and closing the door behind me was in no way what-so-ever like the final episode of Cheers.

Part of me wonders what that’s all about.  I mean, that house was home for many years, and California was for all thirty-six.  I grew up in one of the best and most beautiful places in the world, with privileges everyone should be so lucky to experience.  Apart from the political nightmare and economic disaster that is the state, I have no ill will toward California.  There’s never been anywhere else I’ve wanted to be.

Until now.

And there it is.  The reason this move is entirely different than any other I’ve made (and I’ve made a few): Colorado is where I’m supposed to be.  I now know what they mean when they say, “You just know.”  I doubt I can explain it much better than that for now.  I think that, instead of trying to get to the heart of it right here and now, I will let the next few years worths of blog posts paint a more detailed and telling picture.  This should be interesting.

So why am I up at 4:30 in the morning?  Let’s just say I got to bed much earlier than usual last night, and leave out any mention of Abby calling out for “mommy” constantly, or PJ wanting wanting to nurse all night or the fact that I left my “good” pillow with the movers, and….

…you get the picture.

Next stop: Las Vegas.  Can’t wait to see you Andrew.

Almost there....Almost there....

A couple of you are probably giggling a little.

But seriously, the house is almost ready for the movers who will be here in the morning.  Tomorrow we hang out while they pack, and then Saturday morning we start our new adventure.

See you in Colorado!

T-Minus 7 Days

Moving day is fast approaching and now that we have reached the last week, I’m starting to wrestle with a boat-load of emotions including joy, fear, excited, worry and everything in between.  I’m a bit of an emotional wreck at the moment.

Alison is having a kind of open house out back.  She invited a bunch of her teaching and playgroup friends to stop by throughout the day and hang out and say goodbye.  I know Ali is riding her own rollercoaster, too.

While the house is a disaster, it’s a fairly well organized disaster.  We are ready, for the most part, though it seems there are still a million things to do and I’m sure we will manage to forget half of them.

This feels more like a journal entry than a blog post.  This is going to be quite a week.  Lord, see us through.

tid bits

* Should be AT&T vs. Sprint (image: gizmodo)

I want an iPhone but I’ll get a Pre. Let me explain.  I need a new phone.  I’m currently off-contract with Sprint and have been waiting for the Pre to come out before I made any decisions.  Now the Pre is out and it looks pretty good and has a lot of potential.  Unfortuantely, it is a first gen device and has the bugs and shortcomings to prove it.

I would love an iPhone.  The device itself is far from perfect, but it is a few generations down the road now and has made plenty of progress.  So what’s the problem?  AT&T.  AT&T, also known as the Evil Empire, is simply a lousy carrier.  Sure, they’ve got their fans, but who doesn’t?  I can’t fathom debating iPhones, Blackberrys and Pres without taking into account their resepctive carriers. The bottom line is that AT&T charges way too much (at least $15 a month more for fewer features than Sprint); their coverage, in the places I have lived and the place I am moving to, is awful compared to Sprint; my experience with their customer service has been down-right appalling, whereas I have a support number for Sprint that gets me in touch with someone who speaks my language and who has the knowledge and authority to make any and all changes necessary - and they usually answer within a couple of rings.  I could go on.

But I still want an iPhone.

The dream died finally when I looked at the AT&T coverage map for my new home town.  Virtually everything to the east of my house (literally just to the east, as in the road I take out of my neighborhood) is either their “moderate” (worst) coverage or roaming!  Er, excuse me, “Partner coverage” is what they call it.  It’s roaming.  So, basically, I can’t go to the neighborhood market that is .97 miles from my house and expect a decent connection. Oh well.  Maybe next time.

Sweet Home Colorado. June 20 is almost upon us and while the stress of moving is surely taking its toll, Alison and I are so excited.  We are aching for the moment when we get to pull back out of the driveway and start this new adventure.  This move couldn’t come at a more opportune time for me personally.  I’ve changed drastically over the last year or so, coming to see many things in new ways, and I’m looking forward to what I’ve been calling my upcoming “Second Half.”  The move is an appropriate event to mark this new chapter in my life.

Cool Stuff.

The new Kindle DX.  I have reached a point where I not only want it because it’s pretty cool, but I could really use it.  More and more, I am finding that many great resources, including otherwise out of print books, are being released as PDF’s for free or next to nothing.  I just recently bought a handful of these books for .95 each!  The problem, of course, is that I have to read them on the computer display or print them out.  One is 224 pages, three are over 400 pages and one is over 1200 pages.  Printing is not an option.  But I could put them on a Kindle. 


Evernote.  This little app still has a ways to go (it desperately needs a better text editor), but you will be hard pressed to find a better “exteral brain” solution anywhere.  have a thought?  Put it in Evernote and have access to it from just about anywhere, anytime. Combine it with…


…Curio.  Curio is one of those programs that looks awesome, but then when you try it out it seems a little confusing and you’re not totally sure how to do “what they did” and it’s tempting to just quit and get on with life.  Well, I didn’t quit.  Think of Curio as a white board, corkboard, journal, and notebook all in one.  It’s a great way to work with both your right and left brain and is one of those programs that is, for the most part, limited only by your imagination.

Green Print.  You know when you print a document from the Web and end up with that annoying last page that has nothing but a url and one line of copyright and legalese on it?  What a waste!  No more with Green Print.  Check it out and save a tree.  Don’t care about trees?  Save a couple of bucks in paper and ink.

Give google a break.  Bing brings great results, offers cool interactive features and looks good doing it.  It’s one of the best things Microsoft has come out with in years.

That is all.