Dad's GPS and Skype Video lessons ; Firefly ; Norton installations

(posted from home)
(This post covers 27-28 February, 2010

----------------------------------------------

Sunday, 28 February-

We didn't go in to Bethany today. I installed Norton Security 2010 on our Windows PCs. I was pleasantly surprised at how easily and quickly both installations went. I remember struggling through previous installations which failed to work at all (“You already have seurity software installed. Please remove it and start over.” after I had already removed the old one.) or conflicted with other software. For my installations today, all I had to do was put in the disk and type in the product key and it automatically did all the software updating, activiation, and registration. When I did the second copy, the installation process was even easier since the online activation app had already tied the copy to my account. Very cool!
The only thing that puzzles me at this point is I think I have something going on on the laptop. I'm now up to 700,000 files and a full-system scan takes forever.
We watched three more '30 Rock' episodes that evening.

----------------------------------------------

Saturday, 27 February-

I went in to Bethany today while Labashi worked at home on her PC. My purpose was to take Dad out for a drive with the new GPS to introduce him to it and point out some of its shortcomings. Labashi of course has many things going simultaneously and needs some time to get organized and knock a few items off of her to-do list for Mom and Dad.
As Dad and I prepared to leave, Mom said she also wanted to go along, just to get out of the apartment. She hadn't been anywhere since The Move and is getting cabin fever.
I did the driving today as Dad watched the GPS. Right off the bat we had the problem of the GPS 'thinking' we were on the adjoining street. This basically comes from the level of map detail available in the GPS's map. Bethany is a perfect place to demonstrate this. Close in to the West apartments are the parking lots interconnected by road. But this road runs parallel and very close to mapped streets-- often within ten yards of them. Oddly, you can sometimes see the parking lot road and sometimes not. The car icon representing your car sometimes is shown on the parking lot road but at other times it's in a blank area and you can see the mapped street nearby. The problem comes in when you have a go-to set and the GPS starts giving verbal directions as if you are on the mapped street. At Bethany, you can be NEAR the mapped street but still have to drive a hundred yards or more on a curving road to get to another curving parking-lot road to take you back to the intersection with the mapped street. And while you're doing this, the GPS is giving you directions as if you are already ON the mapped street.
Once you realize this, it's easy enough to just ignore the instructions until you get to the mapped street. That's easy to do at Bethany but it also lets you know that your GPS will sometimes be fooled at places like this-- at frontage roads, for example. (And frontage roads are already confusing!)
I first had Dad just put the GPS on MAP and watch what happened as we drove from Bethany to the Giant a few miles away. He was already familiar with this route so he could concentrate on the display. At the Giant, we then set a GO-TO to go home and drove back to Bethany. And here the GPS tried to take us to Dad's parking place by following the mapped street only to tell us we had arrived at the destination when we were actually on a parallel road and couldn't turn in to the parking lot for another 75 yards or so. But that was a good demo of a limitation of the technology.
Dad had been out exploring on his own earlier in the day and had gone to Best Buy and then gotten lost and had to stop several times to ask directions. I had put Best Buy in as a Favorite yesterday so I had him select it on the GPS and drove there while Dad watched the GPS display and got a feel for warnings of upcoming turns, the count-down of tenths-of-a-mile before a turn, etc.
Once at the Best Buy on Carlisle Pike, we told the GPS to stop navigating and I took them next door to the Wegman's supermarket. We did a short walking tour of the marketplace and Dad insisted on picking up some chocolate mousse desserts for us (yay!) but the point was to give them their first introduction to Wegman's as an alternative to Giant. They had been used to Meijer's and Trader Joe back in Michigan and I'm hoping they will be able to find the things they like here.
After Wegman's I drove west on Carlisle Pike to point out the Wal-mart and the Honda dealership, then Dad set a Go-to for home. I believe Dad is comfortable enough to venture out with the GPS now and have confidence that if he gets lost he can use the GoHome function and it will work.
The other major thing we did today was get familiar with making Skype Video calls. With Labashi at home working on her PC, this was the perfect opportunity to make and take video calls. And the calls were also useful ; Labashi had info and questions for us so this worked out great.
The camera I bought for Skype is a Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 and it's very good for the purpose. It automatically adjusts focus and light and has a wide field of view and a deep depth-of-field. The only thing I didn't appreciate about it was its unsolicited prompts to install additional Logitech software because 'some features may not operate correctly'. The camera was working very well for all of our test calls so I didn't want to chance making it worse, particularly on the vague information provided. What features? Ones I'm interested in? But in summary, I'm very happy with this camera and the Skype Video setup. Easy to set up, easy to use, free video calls. Now, Skype, get busy on small-scale video conference calling!
That evening we watched 'Firefly', an interesting little TV series I had not heard of during its production run in the early part of the decade. It's pretty good! If they can keep up the quality of the writing after their first few episodes, I think we'll be in for the whole ride.

***************** END OF POST ************

More settling in at Bethany (setting up wireless, GPS, etc) ; our new dishwasher

(posted from home)
(This post covers 16 – 26 February, 2010)

------------------------------------
Friday, 26 February-

We had four or five inches of snow overnight but it was very lightweight so I had it cleaned up in an hour or so this morning. We then went in to Bethany.
I installed the Skype and the webcam with no significant problems and tested it out with a few calls to my laptop there in the apartment.
Labashi took Mom to her first massage appointment (nice!) while I finished up that install and then we had lunch in the cafe. It's very nice to simply be able to walk over to the cafe or the pool or reading room or billiards room or clinic or pharmacy without ever going outside on a windy, snowy day like this.
Later in the day I decided to install the GPS in Dad's car. After the intial startup process I drove around Mechanicsburg to some of the places I thought Dad will be wanting to go. I went to the Giant and while in the parking lot I hit the Save-to-Favorites function to record it. I then did the same across town at the local Lowe's, Best Buy, Wegman's, Wal-mart, and the Honda dealership (for when they need car maintenance). Along the way I bought a few specialty items at the Wegman's (to encourage Dad to make the trip on his own sometime). And since I was in the area, I stopped at the motorcycle dealership for a look-round at the ST1300 and the used bikes.
After supper with Mom and Dad, Labashi and I made a quick trip to Lowe's. We needed screws to fix Mom's favorite chair so I had Labashi drive using the new GPS to get her reactions to it. The good news is it does an amazing job given the challenge. The bad news is it's not perfect. It sometimes thinks we're on a parallel road. It doesn't do well with mall parking lots or the very complex and odd arrangement of the Bethany parking lots and roads. Once you realize it will only give verbal directions once you reach the highlighted road (on your go-to track), you realize you'll have to look for that visually on the display. But if you just wait for it to talk, you'll feel lost. But our little test session was helpful in pointing these things out and it became clear that when I first introduce Dad to it, I'll need to do the driving while he watches the GPS for awhile to get used to these concepts. In any case, it's a LOT better than not having the GPS and this model is better (and simpler) than most others I've seen.
After we fixed Mom's chair we returned home and watched a few '30 Rock' eps to relax.

---------------------------------

Thursday, 25 February-

Today Labashi and I drove in to York for a shopping trip. I returned the wi-fi adapter for a refund (Best Buy was very good about this) and I bought a Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 and a Garmin 255W GPS for Dad. The former is a highly-rated webcam so I can get Skype video calling set up on Dad's PC and the latter is for Dad to find his way around his new hometown.
We had lunch at Fudds and ran some errands at Wal-Mart before going home. Labashi then ran our first load of dishes in the new dishwasher and the results were fantastic. What a difference this dishwasher makes with our old dishes! They hadn't looked that bad and they certainly appeared to be clean enough but now they're shiny and new-looking.
That evening we watched 'Rachel Getting Married' with Anne Hathaway. Director Johnathan Demme did a very nice job with this small film. Anne plays a young woman coming out of drug-rehab to attend her sister's wedding and we see the tensions of long-held secrets and resentments boil over. Yet it's somehow a positive message. The amazing thing about this movie is how real it feels. The cast is almost outrageously culture-mixed and the movie was shot on the fly with no rehersals and with live music. But it works and works very, very well.

------------------------------------

Wednesday, 24 February-

Today the dishwasher installation guy finally showed up. Actually, it was the brother of the guy we had been dealing with. Fortunately, he was very good and an interesting guy to boot. He's a dishwasher installer but also owns a sign-painting business and is a rabid mountain-biker and kayaker. I loved talking with him throughout the install. The one glitch we ran into with the install was that my under-sink connection was apparently a non-standard one so I had to dash over to the hardware store for a washer hose for the final connection.
We then went in to Bethany and I attempted to install the Belkin USB wi-fi adapter. I had successfully installed one in Dad's computer but this one would not work. It hung up Mom's computer and even prevented it from re-booting. I ended up calling Belkin tech support and after an hour or so of troubleshooting learned this unit does not work with Windows XP Service Pack 3. It seems odd that it would work with the predecessor Service Packs and not this one but the Belkin techs seemed very good and said that is indeed the case.
I then went through the research on how to back off to Service Pack 2 but that turns out to be too risky. There are many, many applications which that could affect according to Microsoft and it's not at all clear they know what the heck they're talking about. Their first set of instructions on how to revert, for example, simply didn't work. So now I'm going to trust them to identify what apps it will affect?
That evening we watched 'Apocalypto', Mel Gibson's gory movie about aboriginal Mexico civilizations. This was a repeat for us but Labashi's studying Central Mexico and she wanted to see it again.

-------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, 23 February-

This morning the dishwasher installation guy cancelled due to sickness. Thank goodness I'm not having to take off work to wait for this guy!
I spent the day driving all over York running errands. I exchanged the Belkin wireless adapter at Best Buy (and saw the sound bar we've been considering is now discontinued). I played with the cheaper GPS receivers for cars and settled on the Garmin Nuvi interface as best for Dad (as opposed to TomTom's). And once I realized the 255W model was on sale ($140 vs $180), I spent a long time with it.
I stopped off at Office Max and Staples to look for a shredder and decided I'd prefer of the Office Max models. I happened to be on the west side of town so went to a different Office Max to pick up the model I liked. But when I tried a test sheet of paper through it, it wouldn't turn off! I ended up abandoning the purchase altogether. I had been on the fence about buying it anyway so when that one jammed, it became an easy decision to save $100 and do without.
We watched a few '30 Rock' eps that evening.

------------------------------------------------

Monday, 22 February-

I spent the day waiting for the installation guy for our new dishwasher. The Sears installation team didn't know anything and all they could do was leave a message on the guy's phone to give me a call. That didn't happen by noon so I talked to the salesman who sold me the machine and both he and I began leaving messages on the installer's phone. He finally called me around 1400 to apologize and say his computer had gone down so he had never gotten the order. I asked if Sears shouldn't have known that and he said the order requires him to acknowledge, so they should. I had specifically asked the Sears installation people if they had anything showing the unit had been picked up or scheduled and they do not. So what good is an acknowledgement process?
Once we rescheduled, I went in to Bethany to join Labashi in another workday at her parent's apartment and to diagnose a connectivity problem with Dad's computer and re-write some connection procedures. We worked until 1930 or so and then came home to a few episodes of '30 Rock'.

------------------------------------------------

Sunday, 21 February-

I didn't sleep well at all last night. I don't know why this happens but occasionally I'll wake at 0130 or so and not be able to get back to sleep until almost daylight. Then I'll sleep very heavily for an hour or so. I wake very groggy but seem to function okay through the day so it's not a big deal. It just seems odd.
I rode the Concours down to the Tollgate Starbucks for my Sunday cap-and-Times but they were out of papers so I was only there briefly. But I definitely enjoyed riding the bike on this nice 45-degree day.
Once back home I spent an hour or so catching up on the blog and the remainder of the time on the Web. I also watched an interesting documentary on the 9/11 conspiracists. Don't let truth get in the way, fellas!

-----------------------------------------------

Saturday, 20 February-

Today was a very nice day, weather-wise. The 42-degree temperature felt great and we had sun all day. I dug out the snow around the Concours and fixed the windshield. The windshield had collapsed under the weight of the heavy snow on the motorcycle's cover last week. But this situation turned out a lot better than I thought it would. The windshield itself did not break. The nylon machine screws holding the windshield to its base broke off. I had four of them left over from previous installations so all I had to do was install new ones and that only took a few minutes. What a relief!
I spent much of the rest of the afternoon researching a portable GPS, possibly for Labashi's parents. Dad isn't enthusiastic about trying something new and might not be able to hear spoken instructions. On the other hand, if we could get an easy-enough-to-use model, it would allow him to explore on his own and (hopefully) give him the peace-of-mind that comes with knowing you can't get too lost to find your way home.
That evening we watched 'The Closer' Season Four eps.


-----------------------------------------------

Friday, 19 February-

We went in to Bethany today. Labashi took Mom and Dad to an extensive medical appointment (their first meeting with a new primary physician). I took that time to install a wireless network in the apartment. I installed an Airport Express router and (in Dad's PC) a Belkin USB wi-fi N-150 adapter. This went surprisingly well. I had wireless connectivity from my laptop set up in about ten minutes and it was very, very easy. It took me longer to make up passwords for the administration and WPA2 security than it did for anything else. Thanks, Apple!
I had a few minor problems with the Belkin adapter. For some reason it didn't appear to work in the first USB port I tried. It seemed to come up ok in another port but the Windows settings for it to automatically connect didn't appear to take. I downloaded the latest driver (just to be sure I had the most current) and tried another reboot and this time the connection came up automatically.
That evening we watched two episodes of 'The Closer' Season 4.

--------------------------------------------

Thursday, 18 February-

We were home today. I researched soundbars for the flat-screen tv. We're disappointed in the poor sound coming from our Sony flat-screen and I suppose we're doing what they want-- now looking to buy an add-on to fix it. Unfortunately, there's not a lot to pick from. I'm thinking of going with a Samsung unit with a wireless subwoofer but am a bit concerned about interference from or with our internet wireless. I'm not going to buy the Sony unit because the subwoofer is a the size of an older desktop-PC and that's where the cables plug in. So I have the cables all nicely hidden behind the TV and entertainment unit but now have to run cables out from behind the entertainment console to the subwoofer and then it's cable runs back to the soundbar. The Samsung, on the other hand, lets me plug into the back of the soundbar and then it talks wirelessly to the subwoofer. I see a few complaints about cutouts with the subwoofer so that may turn out to be a loser, too.
In the afternoon I drove in to Starbucks just to get out of the house and stopped by Action Motorsports in York to see what's on the floor. I LIKE the new Honda NV700. It's sort of a smaller brother to the ST1300 sport tourer. Its $10,000 price seems high compared to, say, a Kawasaki Versys but I've had too many problems with my Kawasakis to want to go that route. I love my Concours 1000 but both my Concours and my KLR650 had problems from the factory and the local dealer ripped me off (IMHO) on a warranty repair. I'm not fond of the somewhat-weird-looking tail of the NV700 and I don't see enough protection for the lower legs for winter and wet riding. Maybe I should just go for an ST1300...
That evening we watched 'Survivor- Heroes and Villains'.




--------------------------------------------

Wednesday, 17 February-

We went into Bethany today. I spent a few hours working with Dad to go through their various favorite websites to update the email address and be sure Dad's records of userIDs and passwords worked ok. We then had a frustrating half-hour trying to reach AT&T to cancel their old phone and internet service. I can't believe how bad these major companies are with their automated systems. If the point is to frustrate you so you don't call back, well, I guess it's working well. I do not understand how a company that's trying to give the impression of being technically savvy can make me re-input my phone number three different times in the 'Help' process when all the time they have it via caller-ID. At one point I asked one of the customer service people why I had to keep providing the same info they already had and he explained that the systems don't carry it over. They have one system to determine what state to route the call to, another for the function, yet another for a cancellation.
Labashi and I then spent the rest of the afternoon installing the Herman Miller shelving units with the new upright-extenders we made. At one point the shelves nearly fell over when a leg-adjuster fell out and unexpectedly dropped the right end of the shelves a couple of inches. It was too short for the purpose. We caught it in time but I had to run over to Lowe's for a replacement (a longer bolt). But once I had that first unit in place, the rest was easy and Mom and Dad are very happy.


-------------------------------------------

Tuesday, 16 February-

We were planning to go in to Bethany today to install the shelving units but last night's coat of stain was still too wet and sticky.
It was supposed to have snowed last night and this morning (up to three inches) but we only had a trace. I spent the day on the web. Among other things I installed Google Earth and began learning about it. My first impression? It's NOTHING like being there. I flew around to some places we've been-- like Yellowstone, Churchill (Manitoba), and tried some street views of places I'm very familiar with in Michigan and PA. I do like having something other than simple map views but so far haven't found Google Earth more useful than Google Maps. Then again, I have all of about two hours experience on it.
That evening we watched another couple of '30 Rock' Season Three episodes on Netflix Instant via a laptop-to-tv HD link.

*************** END OF POST ***************

The Big Move-- Phase 2

(posted from home)

(This post covers 31 January – 15 February, 2010)


----------------------------------

Monday, 15 February-

Today is President's Day. Labashi and I took the day off from our daily trips to Bethany in order to fabricate and stain the boards for the shelving uprights. I cut the boards to size using Labashi's sliding miter saw, then Labashi stained them this morning. They'll need another coat this evening.
Around lunch time we drove into York for groceries. We had lunch at Fuddruckers and I bought some wireless cards for Mom and Dad's PCs at Best Buy. We then did our grocery shopping at Walmart and hit the Starbucks on the way home as snow flurries began.
I spent the evening catching up the blog and posting it. Labashi and I watched 'Girlhood', a documentary about two young girls in the juvenile justice system in Baltimore.

---------------------------------

Sunday, 14 February-

Believe it or not, I'm still shoveling snow each morning. Today I finally dug out the mailbox well enough for the mailman to drive up to it. I had dug a walkway to it but the mailman wouldn't take the hint. I don't blame him. If everybody only cut a path to the mailbox, you'd spend all day getting in and out of the delivery vehicle to make deliveries and pickups.
This afternoon Labashi and I went shopping for boards and fasteners for Mom and Dad's Herman Miller shelving units. These are modular shelving units which depend on upright poles running from floor to ceiling. But the ceiling in the new apartment is a foot higher than it was in the house. We need to fashion 'extenders' to take up that extra 12 inches.
After supper Labashi and I installed one of the shelving modules in Mom's bedroom. The plan had been to put it in the nine-foot-ceiling area but this room also has a ceiling step-down to eight feet near the bathroom.
That evening Labashi and I finished 'The Corner'.

---------------------------------

Saturday, 13 February-

I spent an hour this morning digging out a trail across the patio and across the back yard to the barn, then digging out around Mocha Joe.
In my workday at Bethany Village today I installed a cable modem on Comcast and got Dad's computer working. He has been champing at the bit to get to email and on the web. I went with him to the complex's Technology Center yesterday and checked email but it's not the same using the clunky web interface as it is using Outlook.
That evening Labashi and I watched two more 'The Corner' episodes.


-----------------------------------

Friday, 12 February-

I still had some snow shoveling to do today just to clear away snow off the top and around the vehicles. I'm having a hard time throwing it over the snow I've piled up in the last few days.
We spent another day at Bethany beginning at mid-day. I took Dad shopping at the Giant and then resumed unpacking.
We again went to the fancy restaurant in the complex and had a special Valentine's Day meal.
That evening Labashi and I started watching 'The Corner', a predecessor to 'The Wire'. It's very interesting to see some of the same storytelling devices used in 'The Corner' that we saw in 'The Wire'.

------------------------------------


Thursday, 11 February-

I had another four or five inches of snow to dig out of this morning, then we headed up to Bethany Village. We spent the day unloading boxes and in some cases, RE-loading boxes. The reloads came from Mom deciding she really didn't need all that 'stuff' from the other house. Despite the paring-down we had done on the Southfield end, there's still far too much for the new apartment.
That evening we ate in the fancy restaurant before Labashi and I headed home.

----------------------------------

Wednesday, 10 February -

Today turned out to be a snow day. We got POUNDED today. We had twenty inches or so overnight and it just kept coming. I went out several times today to dig us out but it seemed a bit ridiculous since the wind was supposed to blow up to 40 miles per hour later in the day.
I did get some unexpected help, though. In mid-afternoon I heard a knock on the door. It was two local teenagers-- Travis and Steph-- who asked if it would be alright for them to shovel snow from my driveway. I suspect they were sent down here by their Mom and/or Dad. Travis and his buddy Nate showed up in much the same unexpected manner two winters ago when I was in Florida and Labashi was here. I think the parents had noticed I was away and sent them down. I imagine much the same thing happened this year but Travis and Steph would only admit to wanting to shovel snow for 'fun'!! That's hilarious--- but much appreciated.
Travis, Steph and I worked for an hour or so and then Nate joined us. We finished up clearing away the snow from two cars and by then there was a new inch of snow where we had started. I paid the kids and went in to my laptop. Just before dark I went back out and cleared away the six inches of snow that had fallen since I came in.
That evening Labashi and I watched a few eps of '30 Rock- Season Three' and then I slept incredibly well.


-----------------------------------

Tuesday, 9 February -

With the rental truck returned yesterday evening, the pressure was off today. We just kept plugging away with the unpacking and furniture placement. I also installed the television, DVD player, and phones.
Late in the day we enjoyed one of Dad's patented 'mostly ice' Manhattans before heading down to the cafe for sandwiches.
After supper we worked until about 2030 and then headed home in a snowstorm.


-----------------------------------

Monday, 8 February -

This morning we met with the marketing director at Bethany Village and she coordinated with Maintenance folks to determine whether we can move Mom and Dad into the apartment despite the ceiling leak and how that will be handled. We learned we can move in and whatever work has to be done to dry the ceiling and carpet, fix the leak, re-do the drywall and re-paint will be done as soon as possible. Mom and Dad will sleep in the other bedroom for now but we can place most items planned for the affected bedroom at their planned locations. We can't put down Mom's wool rug, though, and we can't put Mom's bed in place for a few days. Also, we were assured that any labor associated with moving furniture or whatever will be handled by Bethany Village staff.
We then talked with our helper in the Washington area and told him it's a 'go' and then started unloading. He estimated arrival at noon.
We began unloading and an hour later learned our helper won't be able to make it. After being stuck in his development, he had to be towed out to the main road only to learn the main roads weren't much better. He had to give it up.
I had considered hiring someone locally but the more I thought about what was in the truck, the more I thought we could do it ourselves. We of course had a LOT of boxes but if we could manage to get the dressers and desks and bookcases and mattresses off the truck, I could most likely get them onto a furniture dolly and into the room.
The high today was only in the mid-Twenties but the 10-15 mph wind wasn't blowing into the truck so I was working without a coat and was very comfortable-- so long as I didn't spend too long outside! I'd get overly warm if I spent too much time in the apartment and too cold if I stayed outside too long but keeping up a steady pace of unloading worked out very well.
My pace of unloading worked out pretty well. Labashi worked in the apartment most of the time and I'd just keep stuff coming. We were using a furniture dolly, a doorman's dolly, and a standard moving dolly which converted into a four-wheel cart. If one or the other couldn't be unloaded right away, I had the others to keep the flow going.
By 1630 or so we were starting to run out of gas. But we took a break for a meal and that helped us get right back to work.
Around 1730 I realized I was going to have to step up the pace if I was to return the truck yet tonight. I wasn't required to have the truck back until 0800 tomorrow morning but didn't want to get up early to come in just to return the truck. So Labashi and I moved the remaining items off the truck so I could sweep it out and and return it in time. As it turned out, we had 20 minutes to spare.
We finally wrapped up the long, long day around 2100 and were very glad to see our beds that night. Good job, team!

------------------------------------

Sunday, 7 February-


We had a bit of a shock this morning when we attempted to load the last few items in the truck. I had thought we'd have plenty of room for our last few items. But last night we realized we had missed a half-height filing cabinet. It was grouped with our inflatable beds and everyone assumed we didn't want to load it until we deflated the beds in the morning (the beds were against it). Also, we had five boxes of plants which we couldn't put in the truck for the mid-teens night.
Between those items and the mountain-ette of personal gear we had, we were in a spot. After using the inflatable-bed pump to deflate the beds, we joked about needing to hook it up to the moving van to suck the air out of the back to make room. I began strategically placing items in the small spaces inevitably left between furniture and building the stack up closer to the overhead door than I liked.
As I worked, Labashi picked up her parents from the Marriott and we then had a few extra cubic inches to fill in the back of the little Honda and that did it. We had the cab of the truck filled with plants and some of our luggage. I had pulled out several small chairs to get the filing cabinet in and somehow managed to turn them around enough to find a way to stuff them back in the truck. And by 0915, we were off!
Our trip down to the Ohio Turnpike was uneventful and, in fact, very easy. The snow had fallen east of us yesterday but here along the west side of Lake Erie, the roads were dry and traffic was light.
Once we headed east on the Ohio Turnpike we expected to see snow buildup and perhaps some slushy roads. But they too were clear and dry and the roadside snow only a few inches deep.
Once we hit PA, the roadside snow increased dramatically but the road was still dry! It was white with salt but I only had to use the windshield washer five or six times the whole way to Mechanicsburg.
When we were about two hours out, the sunset on the snowy scene was quite striking and beautiful. We were using little Motorola radios between the moving van (me) and the little Honda (Labashi and her parents) and in this beautiful area we kept saying 'Wow! Look at THAT!!!-- OVER.”
We also played a road-game. “Welcome to Pennsylvania. The governor of Pennsylvania is ?? – OVER”, “The state tree is the ???-- OVER?”, :”The state bird is the ???--- OVER”, “The state flower is the ????? --- OVER”, etc.
We finally made Mechanicsburg by 1930 and drove to the local Isaac's sandwich shop for supper. Labashi then took Mom and Dad to a hotel while I took the plants to the new apartment. Imagine my surprise when I opened the apartment door and found water dripping down from a ceiling vent in Mom's bedroom.... the one we're moving into tomorrow!
We reported the problem to the front desk and talked briefly with the maintenance staff. Buckets were set up to catch the drips and we headed home after a long day.
Unfortunately, we couldn't sleep. Our help for unloading tomorrow (one of Labashi's brothers-in-law) is to come up from the Washington, DC area. And they have two feet of snow.
We talked at some length about our problems. I started checking craigslist's labor/moves category for last-minute help. I found several possibilities and made a list for tomorrow. But I wasn't happy with the idea. If I hire someone, the point for them is to get in and get out. A typical ad was $100-140 for two guys for two hours. What would happen in those two hours?? I'd have an empty truck and the large pieces placed but most likely a chaotic apartment filled with boxes of stuff.
We finally headed off to bed around midnight with a lot more questions than answers. Were we going to move in tomorrow or not?

------------------------------------

Saturday, 6 February-

This morning I picked up the U-Haul truck and we began the loading process. Labashi and I had it to ourselves for the morning and that was a bit of a strain. We planned to leave the larger items until we got some help but then found we needed to get some of those items in and strapped to the walls before continuing. Around that time her sister arrived with our two nephews and that was a great help. It was a wonderful luxury to spend my time strapping down the load and trying different combinations of stacking and placement to fill all the space I could while the nephews hauled in the furniture and boxes.
Late in the day two of Labashi's brothers showed up. One was very helpful in staging stuff outside the truck and the other did a magnificent job of finishing up the garage cleanup. Heck, he even swept the floors.
By the end of the day the truck was filled and we were all surprised to see everything fit. Several of the crew said they thought it would never fit but thankfully I didn't have that worry. In looking at U-Haul's recommendations for truck size and having done Part 1 of the move, I thought I didn't need this much truck but decided too much is better than not enough. In this case it was 'just-enough'.
That evening we all had a very pleasant farewell-to-Detroit meal at El Nibble Nook. (I'm going to miss those Ultimate maragaritas!)

------------------------------------

Friday, 5 February -

Today Labashi's sister and our nephew came over to help pack all the kitchen. Labashi's brother cleaned a van-and-trailer load out of the garage and for a change it looks like we may make our schedule.
That evening we took Mom and Dad to the local Marriott for the night and had supper with them in the restaurant. We stayed the night in the house on our surprisingly-comfortable inflatable beds.

------------------------------------


Thursday, 4 February -

Today we packed up Dad's office. The biggest challenge was finding the right boxes for the computer and printer. We found some previous-generation computer boxes in the garage loft and they had sufficient styrofoam packing materials for the job. After a bit of judicious cutting with my pocket-knife, that seemed to do the job. I guess we'll find out at the other end.

------------------------------------

Wednesday, 3 February -

What next? Here we are only a few days from moving Labashi's parents out of their Michigan house and the furnace quits. A few days after listing the house (several weeks ago), the garage door opener quit. And the next day a ceiling light shorted out. That same week BOTH Labashi's watch and her mom's watch suddenly died.
But perhaps I shouldn't complain about the furnace failure. If the failure had waited a week, the house would be empty and we wouldn't have known about it, possibly until we had damage from frozen pipes.
This failure apparently happened around bedtime last night. Everything had been fine through the evening but then the furnace didn't seem to be able to start. Also, I noticed the humidifier overflow was running abnormally. I thought the furnace might have gone into it's overnight program and I just hadn't listened closely before. But by 0100 or so, it was evident the house temperature was dropping too far. Not long after that Dad woke and we talked it over and decided to call in the morning rather than have an expensive repair call.
The furnace company dispatched a guy within about an hour and a half of our call. And this guy was a good one. If all techs were as good as this guy nobody would complain about tech services. He quickly sifted through several problems and went ahead and corrected some small problems which had apparently existed since the original installation in 2007. He noticed a hose clamp that hadn't been placed quite correctly and was putting excess pressure on a hose in an unsupported place. He fixed the programmable thermostat which had been programmed incorrectly when the original installer had failed to recognize that sometimes he was setting the clock on an AM setting and sometimes a PM and they were intermixed. All in all, we were very lucky to have this all resolved before our departure.
We spent the rest of the day packing Mom's office. It didn't seem like a big job when we started but seemed to drag on and on into the evening.


----------------------------------------------

Tuesday, 2 February -

Today we got up at 0530 for the drive to Michigan. We had to be sure to get the rental car back by 1800 and there was supposed to be snow in Toledo and around Detroit. But our trip today went very smoothly. The little rental, a Chevy Cobalt, had no problem running 70 and 75 while we listened to podcasts of 'This American Life' and 'RadioLab'. We kept the breaks very short and found ourselves in Detroit by 1500.
After dropping off the car and visiting with the parental units for a few, I walked down to Starbucks for a bit of exercise and to say hello to my barista-buddies and read the paper.
That evening we settled in and caught up on the news and I had a bit of time to catch up the blog.

-----------------------------------------------

Monday, 1 February-

This morning we had our appointment with our tax prep specialist. I usually try to get this out of the way the first thing in February so I can head on down to Florida for a month or so. But we still have to get her parents moved back here and settled in. I've not given up on getting some Florida time but it may be limited to only a week or so-- We'll see.
The rest of the day was spent packing for our trip back to Michigan tomorrow. That evening we drove over to the Harrisburg Airport to pick up a rental car. I decided a one-way rental would make more sense than taking our car only to have to put it on a trailer to bring it home. The rental of the trailer alone is close to the cost of renting the car. And given the difference in gas costs, turnpike fees, wear-and-tear on my car and the hassle factor of dealing with the car trailer, this approach is very worthwhile.
After picking up the rental car we dropped our car at the senior community for us to drive home next week after we're dropped off the U-Haul.
That evening we watched a few more eps of '30 Rock – 3'.

-----------------------------------------------

Sunday, 31 January -

Today drove to Chambersburg to visit Maypo et famille. After chatting for a bit we went into town for lunch at Bistro 71 and were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves in the middle of C-burg's Ice Festival. Ice sculptures were positioned along the sidewalks about every 10 or 15 yards and they were really well done. Some were big enough for kids to pose on and parents were snapping away--- very cute!
The nice little bistro was crowded but just enough to give it a friendly feel. I've only been here a couple of times but have found the food good and the drinks relatively strong. After I had a drink or two I hailed one of the owners and asked her to tell us 'their story'. She gladly obliged and we learned about their efforts to build up the downtown area. When she mentioned the artwork on the walls and said they are happy to display the work of area artists, I said I have an artist for her--- my father-in-law. When I mentioned his name, she shocked us by asking me to repeat the name, then saying her husband used to work for him! She called him over and introduced Labashi. They jumped right into talking about the families involved in that business over 30 years ago. What a coincidence!!
After lunch we took a quick tour around the Ice Festival and then went back to the house for more talk-talk-talk into the evening.


************* END OF POST **************