| 3 January 2003
Hummm.... My first entry of the
year. We have made the final plans for our move to Albany, NY.
Duncan leaves Sunday and starts his job on Monday. It'll be
another week and a half before I make it up there. When I get
there I have to concentrate on getting a job and finding a place.
We may even make the commitment of buying a house first thing. Kaleb will have to stay with my folks for
a while because we will be staying in corporate housing at first.
No Dogs Allowed. Boy, will I miss that dog. Tomorrow I have
an appointment with the optometrist, some new glasses may be in
line. It seems like I just got these but they are four years
old. My Jeep is finally home
after almost two weeks in the shop, still missing one fender, due in
Tuesday. Remember it was hit in the ice
storm one month ago. Wow, what a sucky month December
was. Ice Storm, yard destroyed, no power for many days, sick for
two weeks, work sucking, fretting about Albany, etc... New year,
new month, new adventures, new york. I know it's supposed to be
capitalized, I wanted the affect. Happy New Year and maybe
tomorrow I'll have some interesting census facts for the departure and
destination cities.
..........
5 January 2003
I sent Duncan on his way today. He should
be in Albany very soon now. I decided to start making my rounds
visiting people. I visited Ray and Tommy and it's sure nice to
know what good friends I have on this big blue marble. As I was
driving home, I got a little teary eyed. In about ten days, I will
leave Kaleb at my folks house. Thinking about that also got me
teary. We may have to leave her up to six weeks depending on when
we get a place. This dog has been with me for ten years through
thick and thin. I also heard a J Lo song on the way home, again I
got teary. Luckily, the CD player was not far from me.
Tomorrow I plan on giving my notice at work. I do not plan to get
teary. I also plan on getting new glasses tomorrow. My
vision has got a little worse but I am nowhere close to needing
bi-focals yet. It was weird to have to take that test though.
..........
6 January 2003
I gave my notice at work today. It felt
really good to hear all the good things that everybody had to say about
me, however when I mentioned the word Albany, everybody said,
"Why?"
I look around and think about moving and wonder
how this person who I have always thought was not a person who had to be
surrounded by stuff get so much freaking stuff. Remember as George
Carlin said, it IS stuff because it is mine. Books, pictures,
cd's, dishes, furniture, South Park stuff, yard tools, a
piano.... I say mine but it is really ours.
I picked up my new glasses tonight and I must
say, I like em. However, sometimes when I look at myself, I think,
man, I picked out gay glasses. But hey, why not? It's
me. If you wore glasses in the 80's, have your put those things on
lately? They're huge! They cover half your face.
And just in time for us as we leave for Albany,
Walgreens is
getting ready to open in Raleigh. maybe Albany has a Media Play to make
up for it.
..........
9 January 2003
The last day of work was good. People
were saying very nice things and it almost made me sad the leave the
place. I have started packing the boxes and making the
plans. I'll be in Albany next Wednesday. It will be quite
some time before our stuff is there with us. I also purchased my
maps today so I won't end up in Colorado by mistake.
It is very quiet here with just the dog and the
boxes. It echoes as I recite this entry to myself. Yes I do
speak aloud as I type when I am alone. That's what I do.
Does anybody remember these?
What I really want to find is a picture of the swings built like a cage
that have arms that you pull to make you go faster and higher.
They're not listed here. Where I grew up, this was all they
had. There were not any of these so called traditional swings we
see today. Any ideas?
..........
10 January 2003
-
1 Syrup
- 1 Mustard
- 10 Duck Sauce
- 2 Arbys Sauce
- 1 Horsy Sauce
- 4 Hot Sauce
- 24 Mild Sauce
- 30 Ketchup
That's what I pulled out of the junk
drawer when I cleaned it out tonight. That along with 10,000 twist
ties and 2,000 rubber bands. Don't forget the 40 batteries and my
Camelot Repeat Performer Card. I don't think Camelot Records has
been open for 5 years and I don't think I have been in there for at
least 8 years. There is definitely no kind of internet site
mentioned on the card.
I have diligently been working to get the truck
and the jeep ready to take on the great northeast, changing the oil and
flushing the cooling system and all that kind of jazz. I no idea
the front tires on the truck were bad. I looked at one today and
there was metal showing although it looked good from afar. Thank
the Lord for used tire joints when you have no job.
..........
13 January 2003
Last entry from Raleigh.
Tomorrow I start on my trek to Albany via other places in-between and
the weather is certainly preparing me for what awaits me. It is
cold and has been cold for a few days. I look at all the boxes
surrounding me and wonder where all this junk came from. I still
need to pack my clothes and some snack food along with all of Kaleb's
belongings also. I need to start thinking about a job and also
getting a permanent place to stay too. On the phone front, Cingular has informed
me that I'll have to get a new phone because my current one is not
compatible with their system up there.
..........
17 January 2003
| Fri |
Sat |
Sun |
Mon |
Tue |
Hi 24 F
Lo -4 F
Possible Early Snow Shower, then Clearing, Very Cold
|
Hi 15 F
Lo 0 F
Partly Sunny and Very Cold
|
Hi 21 F
Lo 11 F
Mostly Cloudy, Chance Lt. now/Snow Showers by evening
|
Hi 20 F
Lo 3 F
Cloudy with Chance for Light Snow
|
Hi 10 F
Lo -6 F
Mix of Clouds & Sun & Frigid
|
Burr... It's even cold for Albany.
By the way, I made it safe and sound Wednesday evening and it's actually
a pretty neat place for the most part. They've had an unusually
large amount of snow this year so it is everywhere. I may have
some pictures in the next couple of days but I seem to forget my camera
every time we go out. We have even started looking for houses the
past couple of days and are looking very favorably toward Schenectady
which is right beside Albany but we have a long way to go before the
final decision. Duncan seems also to enjoy his new job and that is
another thing on my agenda. Anyone want to hire me? It would
make my life a lot easier if there is. I also want to thank
everybody for the calls and e-mails as I left town. It made me
feel really good. Did I tell you we'd miss that dog? Because we do. Did
I tell you it's 5 degrees now is going toward -4 tonight? Because
it is. I have a new cell phone which is super cool compared to my
old one. It's hard to believe how much they have changed in just a
short amount of time. Tomorrow we have an appointment with a
realtor and we should begin the house search in earnest.
..........
18 January 2003
It's 11 below zero. I went outside but
really, it feels no different than 4 degrees.
..........
19 January 2003
There are a lot of houses out there and that's
what we spent the majority of the day doing. We also went to see
About Schmidt which was very good but not the most entertaining part of
the evening. All through the movie this kid was making noise and
being very irritating to everyone, so at the end, Duncan goes and sits
beside him and explained how rude he was and by the time he was done,
the kid was offering to pay for his movie. That's my man. We
also found a frozen lake and had to go walk on it, hell, others were
driving on it.
..........
23 January 2003
Well, we did it. Our new house in
Schenectady, NY. Of course we still have to finish all the
mortgage garbage and all that good stuff. Can you tell that is all
we have done over the past week is house hunting? It's actually a
fun way to spend the day. We started with 21 houses and finally
narrowed it down to this 102 year old beauty. It's strange that we
both agreed on almost every aspect of what we wanted and agreed so
easily on everything. It needs a lot of work but it has plenty of
room, is in a nice neighborhood, has a double garage in the backyard, a
full basement and an attic to die for. A lot of hard work went
into finding it and a little stress on the side, but all well worth
it. Now we are both very excited but is is Duncan's first house,
and he is absolutely giddy.
It is now time to get packed up for a weekend
in North Carolina for the Super Bowl and a visit with Kaleb who we miss so much. There is
as much as eight inches of snow down there.
Good-bye Nell. We love ya.
..........
27 January 2003
We are back from our visit South this evening
and I can report that Kaleb is fine as is everyone else I visited on my
400 mile trek through the state. That is in addition to the voyage
to and from there so I am ready not to be in the car for a while.
It was good to see some folks that I did not have a chance to see before
I left last time. I also drove through Charlotte and a couple of
things took me by surprise. The first was the new Gay and Lesbian
Community Center with a large sign on the front denoting just
that. I also drove through uptown and while it was bustling, I saw
two guys in suits walking holding hands. Things sure have changed
over the years. And congratulations David, we always knew it
was a hot site.
I just do not comprehend this at all.
..........
30 January 2003
Yesterday and today are the first days that the
temperature has been warm enough to do some actual snow melting.
We may even see some normal temps next week. Maybe we'll even get
to see the yard at our house. For all we know, there is
none. We did get the inspection done today and for an old house,
it's in pretty good shape. The roof on the back porch could use
some improvements. I assume that Home Depot and I will become good
friends in the coming months. Also, the car wash may come in very
handy as it's impossible to keep a car clean here.
..........
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