Countdown

Move day is fast approaching.  Packers are here on the 25th, movers here on the 26th, and they promise to deliver to the temporary residence in Wimberley between the 30th and the 3rd.  That gives us about 12 days to be ready to go.  Fortunately, we’ve been anticipating this move for quite a while.

The biggest challenge, in the short term, is going to be space.  Because we’re moving into a temporary place, until our house sells, we’re going from 6,100 square feet to about 1,400.  We’re taking about 15% of our “stuff”, so it’s a game right now to try to pick what stays and what goes.  This couch, that chair – not that table – and so on.  It’s maddening – but in the end, I hope it’s cathartic, and I hope that we end up not needing more than we brought.  In fact, when it comes time to empty the Atlanta house, I’d love to be able to not move 50% of the rest of the 85%.

Should be an interesting experiment in family dynamics.  Stay tuned.

Quick Trip to Texas

We’re headed out to the San Antonio/Austin area for a couple of days, to finalize a rental house.  Our house in Atlanta hasn’t yet sold, and we need to be in Texas, so we’re going to rent.  We have a few choices – a two-building cabin setup, on the river; a three-bedroom house on the fringe of a horse farm; a big house sort of on the two-lane highway across from the high school; a two-bedroom house with a detached loft apartment.  None of these places are very big, and none are what we ultimately want – we just need a place to be, and we need to get going.  We’ve got pictures of some of these places, but we’re not comfortable making this choice from the Internet – so we’re headed out to look at the places, have dinner with the inlaws, write a lease, and get an address.  

I’ll probably take my PC, the blackberry, and a personal cell phone.  Wonder how long it’ll be before I can get away with a two-day trip without the PC?  Email – check.  Reading attachments – check.  Getting to a number of IBM websites – check.  Creating/Editing quick Powerpoint charts and Excel spreadsheets seem to be my downfall.  Even if I had something like the Tilt or Centro, I’m not sure I could really get what I need done.  Seems a shame.  Wonder if the iPhone SDK will address my issue?

New Cell Phone Numbers

So we all got new cell phone numbers, because we’re moving.  I don’t know how it was for you (if you’ve ever had to change), and I can only speak for AT&T Mobility – but, “What a pain.”  They couldn’t just switch my numbers – they had to create a whole new account.  They couldn’t just copy my old account information over – they had to hand-enter all of my information into the system again.  They couldn’t transfer over the services I had from my old account – they had to sign me up for all new services.  They couldn’t get any information about my devices over the network – I had to give them things like IMEI numbers, etc.  All of this over the phone (had to be between 7am and 7pm CT on a weekday) – I was on for two hours.

But I got them changed.  It’s a little cathartic – feels like starting over, in a way.  I get to choose who gets the new number to my personal cell (everyone else gets the work number) – so now I know that when the personal cell phone rings, it’s someone I want to talk to – at least for a little bit…

The new iPhone releases in a week – guess I’ll get another chance to interact with the customer care team, very soon…

Winding it down in Atlanta

This week is about starting the process of winding down the Atlanta presence.

Some logistical things – like changing cell phone numbers to the Austin area, changing the work location in all of the corporate systems, talking to the movers, registering the kids for school, and working out the temporary lease on a place in Wimberley.

Some exciting things – working out whether we can get a temporary/quirky little place on the river, letting the family know when we’ll be there, setting up camps and mini-vacations for the summer, and buying the end-of-school-year gifts for the kids (new phone, new game platform).

Some bittersweet things – attending a couple of going away parties that folks are having for us, helping the kids get everywhere in the next few weeks to get their yearbooks signed and friends touched, getting rid of smaller kids’ beds and buying new ones for the new place, taking down all the bird feeders and art around the place.

Lots to do – not nearly enough time between now and June 30 – but we’re ticking down to the move, and we’ll go, ready or not…