June 22, 2001
The settling in continues
One inch. One lousy damn inch. That's how much more space I needed in my office to fit my desks and bakers rack the way I wanted them. So, I had to run out to get a new, narrower, bakers rack for the servers. Dammit. Oh well, when I move the original chrome rack into the garage, I'll have one of the spiffiest garage shelving units in the neighborhood, I guess.
The unpacking is coming along. I got most of the office boxes done last night. Of course, nothing is in place, but they're unpacked. It's a start. I have to get a longer cable for the cable modem before I can put the baker's rack where it belongs and get all the servers set up. Once I do that, then the rest of the office should come together pretty easily. Then, it's on to the books and CDs. Ugh, what a job that will be. I was lamenting to some online friends about how I didn't pack my CDs myself, so they're all out of order and will need to be arranged. Yes, I alphabetize my CDs. How else are you going to find what you're looking for in a collection now up over the 1000 mark?
While moving office furniture around last night, I realized that the desk the movers broke was worse off than I originally thought. The wooden piece at the back that keeps the legs from flying out to the side when you put weight on the top surface is broken to the point that it can't be repaired. Right now, it's supported on 3 sides by walls and the other desks, so it'll be fine for this apartment, but it won't survive another move. Oh well.
I learned something the hard way yesterday ... down here, when it's humid, a forecast of "partly cloudy" means it's going to rain. Thankfully, I heard thunder and ran out to put my windows up and close the sunroof before the inside of the truck got too wet. When I asked about the total lack of warning for this cloudburst, people looked at me like I was crazy and said "it was humid and cloudy, Kyle." OH! Silly me.
[Kyle // 07:54 PM // permalink]June 17, 2001
The move to Irving
Well, it's 90 degrees outside today, but it's actually quite nice! If the humidity would stay this low all summer, then I wouldn't be so nervous about living here ... but I know it won't stay like this for long!
The apartment is coming along. Both bathrooms, the kitchen, the master bedroom and the living room are done. All I have left is the office, and all the CDs/DVDs/books that are in boxes in the dining room. The garage is halfway there. It's neat and I'm able to pull the truck in, but it's not arranged the way I want it yet.
I've been out and about a bit, so I can share with you a few observations about Irving:
The good: This is the opposite of Boston with respect to Wendy's. In Boston, there were only 2 Wendy's around, and they were both far away from my house. Here, there's one on every corner! There are 4 of them within 5 miles of my house. I'm not kidding!
And, guys everywhere (the cablemodem guy, the guy at CD Warehouse, a random dude at Chick-fil-a) told me "well, you'll like what the heat does to women's clothing!" ... they were right. I've seen the shortest shorts and smallest tops just wandering around stores and fast food joints. I think I'll like that part.
The bad: Irving is a dry city! I have to drive into Dallas to get beer. So, that means the home of arguably the most drug abusing professional football team (yes, I mean the Cowboys) doesn't allow beer to be sold retail. What the hell is that? It's only a problem when I have guests or headed to a party or something, but it still sucks!
The ugly: There are churches, Icthus fish on backs of cars, and religous trinket stores everywhere. Welcome to the bible belt. I'm pretty sure I saw one community that had a stone gate all the way around it, and just inside the single entrance to the community was a chuch. I'm going to go back to confirm that's what I saw, but if that's real, it's just damn creepy. Of all the Icthus fish I saw, only one was the cool "Darwin" one that I've thought about getting
Oh, I want to say "hi" to Snack, webmaster of BrokenPurpleCrayon.com, which hosts the "Texas weird laws" page I linked to below. She found out pretty quickly that I had linked to her and dropped me a note welcoming me to Texas.
[Kyle // 07:53 PM // permalink]