On the Road

I'm in Kansas City staying at Mom's place. The two storage units are getting staged for loading into a big moving truck on Tuesday. Family has been rounded up to direct younger family members who will hopefully heft and tote the stuff into the trucks under the supervision on my Aunt who can load 'more than 10 lbs of * into a 5 lb bag'. Getting all my stuff into the 24' truck, the largest Budget has, will test her skills. I have found at least 3 pieces of furniture I forgot I had. Mom says just leave them, my uncle can use the wood from them in his shop. I am sick at the thought of the furniture of my youth being torn up, but many stories on the net and in various magazines mentions that youth these days don't want all the stuff we 'older folks' kept all those years.

I had hoped to get rid of some stuff while sort through, but instead Mom keeps giving me more stuff. I am taking it with plans to have large piles of things for a 'free' box at the park where I live. I am also not taking some of it. Really.

Options

This has been a week of pondering options. A job agent (automated bot that scans job positions and sends me ones that meet the criteria I've set) sent me notice that a job back on the Honduras contract I had wanted is now open. I've stayed in contact with my former boss, and I've been talking to him. There are good and not as good points about both going back and staying here. I'm pondering.

I am on the cusp of going back to MO and getting my things in storage there. For the first time since I drove off from Nashville in the big moving truck with my Jeep hitched on behind I am close to having everything I own in one place. As such I'm working on getting the new place ready for the huge influx of just stuff. For the past few days this has taken the form of measuring the space in the bedroom, the air mattress, and comparing all of it to the IKEA catalog. For $500 I can build a base for the mattress with storage, and have the alcove filled with drawers. This should go a long way to storing all my clothes. This morning I'm looking at the card balances and my paycheck, and I'm thinking that cardboard boxes and the mattress on the floor aren't so bad.

I met a fellow blogger and her husband for lunch 2 days ago. Judy of Judy's Quilts and Things (see sidebar) and her husband moved to Phoenix recently. We spent the time talking mostly about yarn and knitting while her spousal unit sat patiently nearby. It is nice to feel like I know someone local now outside of work. I had met another online-only friend when I first moved here as well. I have yet to have a bad experience when meeting bloggers or people I only know through message boards on line. Everyone has pretty much been the way they come across when they write. Then yesterday a former co-worker from my time in Honduras was in town and we met and talked for over an hour. I ran my ideas about going back and he weighed in on his point of view. It was good to sit down with someone I've known for a few years and really talk and catch up on what's been happening with friends from down there. All in all a much more social week than normal.

Temperatures are starting to get down into a range I can tolerate for more than just a few minutes outside. I'm looking forward to getting out and hiking some, as well as travel around the area more. Not a lot else going on, just a lot of pondering my options and trying to make sensible decisions.

Lessons learned at 3am

I really need to make sure I have the keys to the house on me AT ALL TIMES when I step outside.

The door to the mobile home won't just 'jiggle' open.

I was very circumspect in keeping all the other access ways locked.

My Jeep is ridiculously easy to break into, it's just a zipper.

I hate the zipper on the back door of the Jeep.

I need to start carrying a screwdriver in my Bug Out Bag in the Jeep.

Keys for a toolbox that is still in Kansas City work as a makeshift screwdriver.

The window on my screened porch is only 1 pane of glass and the blinds. Held down with a screw, which keys will turn.

I have small hands and arms and can reach in by prying the bottom section of glass out enough to reach the crank.

I am small enough to climb into the cranked open window.

New bright white t-shirts get slightly embarrassing black marks on them when I climb into Jeeps via the unzipped back window and enter the house in a similar manner.

I hate the zipper on the back window of my Jeep.

I should probably also put a spare set of keys in the BOB in the Jeep.

I was reminded of the time when I was 19 I showed up at my parent's place sooner than they expected me while they were at work. They had moved since I had been back to see them (I still found them! Ha!) so the neighbor didn't know me. He was working on his car next door. I went around the house, found an unlocked window, and casually went and asked him if I could borrow a screwdriver to get into the house. He gave me one, then followed me to the window and watched as I popped the window out easily, handed him the screwdriver with thanks, and proceeded to climb in. He always looked at me weird after that. Mind you, my Mom worked 3 miles from there and my first and only thought was to break in, not go get her key. When my parents got home they asked how I got in and I said I broke in. They didn't find it too strange. I did mention they might want to reassure the neighbor. Comes from being a latch key kid who didn't always remember my key. Obviously, I've still got it!!

Computer glitches

I guess my computer got tired of me saying that I didn't like using it, cause it went tango uniform (geek speak...) last night. I'm trying to revive it. My next most useful laptop is my D800, which has a 17" screen, but it is the oldest and slowest. Well, maybe not slowest. The netbooks don't seem to have much horsepower for the things I want to do. At any rate, I am counting the days again (still?) until I have my desktop back in operation. Pictures are on hold as my time is now spent working on my ailing laptop and trying to figure if I lost anything. I had the nagging feeling I should pull a backup this week. It kept running slower and slower, and I was cussing my internet connection. Oh, well.

I have my ticket to fly back to Kansas City the last week in September. It will be a busy week and a half of sorting, loading and driving my stuff in a big truck back here. I'm both looking forward to it and not looking forward to it.

Beginning the blog changes

I don't have photo editing software on the laptop. If I did I would have cropped out the date on the header picture. My home isn't in this picture, this is the main cross street looking toward the Superstitions. I'll work on the rest of the pictures, but don't hold your breath.

Guess I should post

Nothing is really wrong. Some things are actually right. I made the mistake the other day of thinking that I finally have life and finances nailed down pretty well and then the past few days have shown me that I have some expenses I forgot about and some that I just hadn't wanted to think about. The job is ok, this shift is doable but not great. However, this shift is what I signed up for so it is what I work. Things have been worse before. As many blogger mention from time to time, mediocre is difficult to write about. Still going through things so the place is still a mess as I don't have furniture to hide the papers and stuff inside of. The office has become my dumping place. That needs to change.

I have started in the kitchen and am cleaning out all the cabinets. I had just put my few things away inside of them, but when I looked several of the cabinets still have sawdust from when they were mounted. As I've said, everything inside of the mobile home is new. So, I'm cleaning and sorting. I have discovered that even standing on my folding chair I can't reach all of the cabinet above the refrigerator, or even all of the top of the fridge. These are minor issues in the grand scheme of things.

I decided that my looking kinda rough had less to do with the hours I'm working than the fact that I could use some newer clothes. My small clothes just don't really fit anymore. I went and got some medium polo shirts. After washing they are tight as well. I think 50 percent is they shrunk, and 50 percent is that I am now a large. Difficult for this recovering anorexic to get my head around. I'm walking every morning around daylight on my days off. If I exercise too much my back hurts. When did all this stuff sneak up on me?

Good Morning

Up around 7 because I was slept out. Had breakfast while Skyping with Mom. Look out the window to... dark. Because it is 7pm when I get up now and my 'day' is more or less midnight to noon. I will have to intermingle with folks on the backside of my day, not my best time even when I'm on the same schedule as the majority of the populace. However, we didn't win the PowerBall last night. I give the guy at work who buys the group tickets a hard time about not getting us a winner yet. He just looks at me with one of 'those' looks. What does he care, he has retired twice now and just works now to have something to do. He's strange in other ways, too.

My body isn't sure if it wants breakfast or dinner or if I am at the beginning or end of the day, wind up time or wind down time. I'm told I'll get used to it. I have 2 nights off, then I swing into the regular schedule of 3 on, 4 off, 4 on, 3 off, midnight to noon. Even I think I'm looking a bit rough as the regular day folks stumble in around 8 am. I should work on that. Luckily we aren't a spit and polish corporate workplace.

Another cup of coffee and I'll start clearing things around here at home. I pulled everything out a few weeks ago to go through it all and I'm tired of stepping over it. That is one excuse for no pictures, it's kind messy here right now. I should also go buy a vacuum and a mop. Tell me again how the 100 item folks do it. You know, the ones who only own 100 things. I have decided to get rid of one blouse I brought with me. Since I wear each piece of clothing more now I'm either wearing them out or am just now noticing that some pieces don't look all that good. I can get rid of several more pieces before I have to worry about not having clothes, though.

And this is my life right now. Waiting on cooler temperatures to go on adventure, getting used to night shift and cleaning house. I'll try some of the offered solutions to get Linux going on my days off as well. It is just difficult to get fired up with it being dark outside now. Seems like it should be time to go to sleep instead.

So much for not being chatty right now

I made it to 3am before I crashed. Now it is noon and I'm supposed to be going to bed, not getting up. The chopper left about 5 minutes after I posted previously. Quiet morning after that.

I managed to get a USB download of Ubuntu, but it didn't like my Dell D800 notebook, which is the one I would have put Ubuntu on permanently. My CPU didn't have pae or something like that. I'll try setting it up on my netbook and see if it works there. So much for Linux working great on 'older' model computers.

I spent some of yesterday over at CodeAcademy.com where they have a Code Year of tutorials/classes on web programming. I'm 3 'weeks' in, and if nights are going to be anything like last night I'll be a freaking educated genius before this is all over.

Today I need to clean house and do laundry. I want to get through everything I have here and have it clean and organized before I bring all my other stuff in. I went to Deseret Industries the other day and got a pyrex bread pan, a small stainless skillet and 2 small plates (originally from Williams-Sonoma) all for $8. I'm slowly getting set up.

Hmmmmm.

A bit ago, just before 2am I walked to the community building and got a gallon of filtered water at the machine outside and walked back. There were birds I'd not noticed before tweeting at me the entire time from up in the palm trees. This is an urban area, so it wasn't totally quiet even at 2am. I heard a siren for just a bit as I got back home. I hadn't locked the door because, well, it is 2am and I'm the only one out. However, with the siren I was reminded I do need to lock my doors, so I did that as I came back in. In just a few minutes after getting home and constantly since there has been a chopper circling above here in a tight circle that includes this park. I have checked all the closets and everywhere someone could have come in and hid. In my experience the sound of a circling chopper in an urban environment means the authorities are after someone and they are in the air looking at the area from above. Guess I need to tweek my situational awareness a bit. I have gotten complacent since coming home from Honduras. Over 20 minutes now, and they are still up there. I'm a light sleeper, so I know this would have woken me up if had happened before, so it isn't just because I'm trying to stay up all night now. If it's not one thing, it's another.

More online courses

I am a frustrated reference librarian. My specialty is free courses on pretty much any subject. So, here are some I've gathered lately:

Last November I signed up for the Coursera.com course Think Again: How to Reason and Argue. The instructors are hilarious and the subject matter definitely not boring. This is the way video courses should be done. Last November I was still in Honduras and just couldn't keep up with the timing of the course. They are offering it again, and they say the textbook is free this time. I'm going to try again. This course is from Duke University, if it means anything for you.

Another set of free video classes I've signed up for is a series of free Permaculture classes. This one is self paced. http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com/ This is set up by the Regenerative Leadership Institute. I believe there is a way to pay and get the certificate for the classes if that is important to you.

Next I'm off to find some Linux tutorials. I got a USB stick set up with Debian but it doesn't have the GUI desktop that I need at this point. The #! (crunch bang) version is what I want to end up with, but I see a Ubuntu USB setup in my immediate future as an in-between. Also, I will get back on the training circuit to get my web programming skills up to par. Since even on my nights off I'll need to maintain an awake schedule between midnight and noon, I need something to keep me out of the casinos.