We almost messed up. We almost got our stuff taken, lost, held for ransom. We almost allowed Road Runner Moving and Storage to screw us. At the last minute I slammed my hand down on the ABORT button and came up with an alternate plan.

Simple to me, confusing to others: Everything that Christine and I want to end up in California went to my Manchester apartment. Everything else went to my parents’ house, Christine’s parents house, or Christine’s apartment in Massachusetts. This was done because my lease ends this week, and we won’t be leaving for Irvine until the end of August. The original plan was to have the movers grab all of our stuff in Manchvegas and bring it to storage, then deliver it to Irvine in September. Meanwhile Christine and I would live out of suitcases and household items that need to go to back to her parents’ house in NJ. To the outsider we have been moving in and out, back and forth from two apartments. We have completely confused our neighbors as to whether we are moving IN or OUT of either apartment.

Saturday I get a call from the movers. It’s an 818 number. (what’s that? NY, PA, NJ?) They tell us that the truck is going to be there at 2 o’clock Sunday. They originally said 9:00. “Okay, whatever, more time to prep.” Sunday morning. Final preparation. 2:00 comes and goes. Then 3:00. I call the company; “What’s going on?” The driver calls me back and explains that they have been pulled over by the state police, and that they may need to do some “maintenance” on the truck. “Right. Okay. So, when will you get here?” They will call me back in an hour. 5 o’clock comes and goes. I call the driver again. “Doesn’t look like it’s going to be tonight.” Furious, I call the main number and get a recording. I leave a message to that extent and Christine and I head back to Hudson, with my apartment still full of boxes ready to go.

Monday morning. No call. I spend from eight to ten looking up information on this company and formulating a backup plan. Keep in mind I have until the end of this week to get my stuff out, and then a month to find another mover. This was good planning on my part. Who I chose for a mover was not. After I read this on the “Movers Blacklist.” Remember the 818 area code? It’s a California number. Not a MA, NJ, NY number like I was expecting.

Doing more research I found that there are several moving companies named “Roadrunner Moving and Storage”. I cross referenced a phone number they gave us and did another bbb.org search. It turns out the moving company we hired did not have a clean Better Business Bureau record. It had a horible one. I call up my Dad to get a “sanity check.” Then I call Christine at work. Plan “B” is to move our stuff into a local storage place and then have movers pick it up there. It also seems like a good idea at this time to look into the “you pack it, we move it” type of movers. The one caveat with that is, not all storage places will let you drop off 2 giant shipping containers on their property, even for a day.

After several phone calls, I contacted State of the Art Storage in Hooksett, NH. They were very helpful and said that it wouldn’t be a problem to have a moving company drop off a container for a couple of days. This way we could move our items from their storage unit into the shipping container, or have a moving company retrieve our items right from storage. Plus the cost of the 15X5 unit was less then the other places I called. These guys are great! If you are in the Manchester or Concord, NH area, call them up!

So we rallied the troops. Christine contacted City to City movers and setup a time in August to deliver containers to State of the Art Storage, while I called, emailed, and irc’d some help. We got a moving crew together and headed back to Manchester, rented a U-Haul van, and got sweaty.

I want to give a huge “Thank You!” and shouts out to the following people: Dad – “Yes, tell them to shove it.” Brian Callahan – “I just need a ride.” James Mackey – “I’m out at 7:00.” Ian Bowers – “I’ll help as much as I can.” Sean Sosik-Hamor – “No traffic. So, I’ll be there in an hour.” Of course Christine “I may not have brought it down the stairs, but I touched every box in there.” Peggy from State of the Art Storage – “Sure, not a problem.” Dawn from City to City movers – “That’s your reward for calling in April.”

I just finished book four “Wizard and Glass” and I’m heading onto “Wolves of the Calla.” Christine graciously reserved it for me at the library.

“Wizard and Glass” was a great read. I’m almost sorry I didn’t read it sooner. Almost. Based on some of the opinions over at thedarktower.net, I think I understood it’s place in the series better then most. I really enjoyed it.

Last time, I mentioned that I read books one through three while listening to “Nirvana – Nevermind.” Well, with this book I stumbled upon another album that seemed to go quite well with what was going on. “The Future Sound of London – Dead Cities.” It’s got a industrial zip-zap western feel. One minute you think you hear the sound of the thinny, the next you are riding into town with your Ka-tet. With tracks like “Heard Killing” and “My Kingdom,” I’m instantly transported under the kissing moon in Mejis. “We Have Explosive” fits perfectly here as well.

I hope Christine has some time to read the first few books and catch up with Ray and I. I’ve added a handful of “Dark Tower’isms” to my vocabulary and I don’t want to give away anything she hasn’t read. Mmmm. This tooter-fish popkin tastes great!

When I first posted the WRC Rally Mexico pictures, I omitted the “vacation” pictures. You know – the fun, crazy pics you take while in another country. Pics of the hotel, pictures we took inside the super market called “Mega,” and other antics. I’ve commented on a bunch so you may get a better idea what’s happening in the picture and for comedic value. It was a bushel barrel of sprinkles. – How could I NOT take a picture?!

Please feel free check it out here:
The lost Mexico pictures.

I pulled my ice cube tray out the other night and found something strange. One of the cubes had grown a spike! I thought – “Okay, I can explain this…” I looked inside the freezer to see where water was dripping from the ceiling of the box. I found none. This is your garden variety GE refrigerator. With self defrost. You know – one of the ones that doesn’t drip, or leak.

So my next guess is that the air bubble that got trapped inside the cube burst. forcing the water / ice slowly upward. It looks like it was flash frozen though. Very curious.

I also think this could be one of those quantum mechanical moments. 1,000 ice cube trays – 1,000 freezers – 1,000 years = one of them goes haywire. If there are any science nuts out there that would like to take a crack at it – please enlighten me.

Update: Igg found a great article on Ice Spikes done by Kenneth Libbrecht researching ice crystals at Caltech. Upon further investigation it seems that conditions in my freezer had to be just right and the fact that they formed using tap water is even more amazing. I was happy however to discover that my scientific guess on why this happened was on the money.

I thought it was pretty clear cut.

You’ve got a “Working Man”, but there is a “Communication Breakdown.” Then they are let down, or “Let you down.” So now all I have is a “Home Life.” Ahh, so you were a “working man”, but now you’re home all the time. There was a “breakdown” so I was laid off. “The move” and “going to California” are pretty clear. I’m moo-ving to Cali-forn-ya. Plus I had to throw the Beasties in there somehow.

I’ve sort of had to be tight lipped for the last couple of months. I wasn’t sure my old company wasn’t going to try and screw me over. Plus I found out that they like to read employees websites. “Hi guys!” I was the last guy in and they apparently needed to downsize. Plus my work has a habit of not showing up good for the numbers game.*

* Jane closed 15 calls, John closed 5. Bad John, bad! Not looking at the fact that John had to rebuild 3 machines, solve 1 common problem and one major one. Jane reset 12 passwords, 2 routers, and 1 common problem. John did 7 hours of work and Jane did 7 minutes of work. Woot!

Now that I know this, I’m glad I failed to mention on any of my websites that I was considering a move to California this August. I’m sure that would have been fired on the spot.

So, what’s this? Okay, my girl Christine (ubersmart molecular biologist) has accepted a grad school position at the University of California, Irvine in Cali.

She warned me that I might have to follow her across the country depending on where she got accepted. I also knew that she really wanted to study for a few years in California. So, we “kept it real” during the first months of our relationship. Either of us could walk if we felt like this wasn’t going to be the “right thing.”

Well, nine months with Christine have turned out to be very much of a right thing. I love a lot about her, especially her drive. A drive to better herself and get everything she wants out of life. I don’t see this that often in women. I love that she’s dragging me around as much as I’m dragging her in every possible direction. Truly a constant adventure. Here’s a picture of us on our way to Mexico. Right after we snuck onto a Hotel shuttle in order to get out of a $25 cab ride to the airport.

So, I’m broke. I’m eating ramen, and singing this song. I had a problem with NH and MA unemployment that I’m not even going to go into. I will survive. Bank North is my favorite phone buddy.

Having been through a downward trend in my life before. No. Wait. I don’t think having your wife leave you for one of the guys in the Subaru club (that you started) while at a rally that you want to someday compete in, six months after you were laid off, is a fucking downward trend. No, what I have here is an opportunity compared to that cluster.

So I’m going to try to eliminate some debt by selling my Subaru. Keep the rallycar in storage. Sell some stuff on Ebay. Hit the flea markets. My lease ends in July.

The next adventure awaits…

I have so much shit in this apartment it’s not funny. I’m digging out of the closet stuff that needs to be shredded then burned. The link is to a DivX movie.

There are thunderstorms moving in – so the site might be (up / down).