Radio Free Newton is On the Air

I have to say that the move to Newton was very smooth so far and my internet is up and running in about 24 hours since wheels-down in this zip-code. The family is still quite un-bobulated, but I will regale with some stories from the trip anon. First, dinner.

Radio Free New Haven is Off the Air

The movers come at 8:00am, it is now 7:15am. The Styx will be off the air for a few hours/days/weeks (it takes me from one month to three months to get myself back up to speed after a move - hoisting myself out of a well-connected rut is quite painful). Will resume the Styx in Massachusetts.

One more day

Tomorrow the moving trucks come to take us away from New Haven. When I am finally, safely, away from this city, I will give a massive dose of thanksgiving tzedaka for being able to leave here alive.

Oh, and happy Tisha B'av.

One Week... and Counting

One week from today is the move-out. Stay tuned.

Two Weeks

We are leaving New Haven in two weeks. Yup. We're moving to the safest city in America: Newton, Massachusetts. (I'd have said "safest in North America, but it's likely that the worst city in Canada is safer than the best of the U.S.) More details later.

Kill Sears

This article in Slate (Jeers and Cheers for Sears ) says that some real estate tycoon may be buying Sears so he can raze the stores and sell/rent the real estate. Whatever. I just applaud anyone's effort to destroy Sears. They were utterly horrible to me when I moved in and I hope they go under fast and painfully. I told them that I was going to tell everyone I knew how horrible they were and they didn't care in the least.

In sum: don't ever ever ever shop in Sears if you can avoid it.

Back in the Saddle Again

Back online! And in the six days I was off (Thursday - Tuesday) Blogspot has radically improved their blog capabilities. I can upload images, change fonts, font color, add numbered lists. Whooooo.

Anyone Know How to Donate a Computer?

We have one, possibly two, computers we can donate. The online help made it sound like an enormous hassle.

Phone Words

I was clued into the fun of phonewords a few years back - creating a mnemonic for your phone number. It doesn't work well when there are too many 0s 1s and 9s. We have a new phone number in New Haven (it'll start on Friday) and I plugged it into this website (drumroll, please) and our word is: NOTHING. It's like Connecticut was saving up on ones nines and zeros for us. I'll keep trying (our contact info will be sent to the cognoscenti in an email).

Update: This site did a better job by spitting out the 2187 letter combination for our phone number and letting *me* choose. Still no good words.

I Hate Moving, Part 2: New York City

Moving out of New York City has its own particular irritants. Cities demand special rules because there are just too many people in a small place. Cities make us more selfish because just by living here we've given up on optimal satisfaction. All of us are needy and deprived, and we expect others to know that and to act accordingly. I get out of YOUR way? You get out of my way! Unless you have a clear indication that you're more needy (e.g. you have no legs, your head is shaved and you have a goatee, you're currently shooting a gun) then nobody gets out of anyone's way.

House-moving is onerous and resource-consuming, which is multiplied ten-fold by the city's inability to be accommodating.

Live in an apartment building? Well, since you live on top of hundreds of people who have their own barely contained needs, you can move out during certain hours of the day, on certain days of the week, and you can use only one elevator. The elevator never leads directly to the street (and the truck) – there's usually 2 elevators to navigate and a long corridor.

Need a big moving truck? Well, it's New York, can't block the intense traffic. Big moving trucks need a place to park – you can do so illegally (the movers give you that option); the move may go quicker, but you need to pay whatever fine they accrue.

Two years ago, three weeks after we got married, we moved ONE BLOCK and that took three days and thousands of dollars.

Don't Forget the Weather!

Also, thank the Lord, it's raining. And the forecast has rain all week. The city freaks out in the rain. Moving in the rain, besides being depressing, gets difficult because if slick sidewalks jammed with pushy New Yorkers taking up 150% space with their umbrellas; all your property (especially boxes) need to be covered and protected. The rain probably adds an hour or two to an already tight move.

Action Packers

We hired our movers to pack up our apartment and they said they need to come two days ahead. We move out Thursday so the packers come tomorrow. Tonight is the last night of normalcy in New York (if you can call it that). Just as you clean for the cleaning lady, we're now packing things away in a manner that we can find it later. I packed my DVDs myself (6 boxes full). Things that we want to keep for the weekend– or give away – we've tucked aside in suitcases. Moving on a Thursday made sense at one point but given the difficulty of NYC, who knows if they can deliver our stuff in New Haven til Friday! Thank God for summer shabbases.

I Hate Moving

Well, duh. I mean, who doesn't hate moving? It's like saying "I hate getting punched in the face." The enormous hassle, the expense of time and money, the guarantee to lose and break valuable things, the chance we will accidentally pack the baby in bubble-wrap, the uprooting of all, uh, roots. Hate it hate it hate it.

However, I have a particular antipathy to moving because of my peculiar abnormal (weird) psychology. While in general I hold no truck in astrology, my protests are dimmed by the fact that I am a pure example of my starry destiny. I am a Leo (and in one remarkable blind-date oodles of years ago, I found out that I was born in the month of Leo and at the time of day when Leo was rising; making me a super megaton King Kahuna Leo). Leos are stereotypically redheaded hot-tempered megalomaniacs who eat a lot a time then sleep a lot afterwards. Uncanny, no?

The key aspect of lion behavior that the stars ordained for me, whether I wanted them to or not (and don't think I truly buy into this but in memory of Reagan, I'll go with it), is the creation of a lair. I love lairs. I love the way the word sounds. Lair lair lair. It's a noun, verb, adjective, interjection (e.g. "Lair!!!") and it's built into my biology due to deep seeded Latvian genetics, moonbeams, or God's little joke.

Lair Dynamics

A good lair is tuned physically, electronically, book-ally, and musically to my needs. When I create a good lair, I can stay there for days without leaving. One reason why I got the reputation as a masmid when I was in yeshiva was because my lair in the beit-midrash was more comforting than my meager pallet in the Kowalsky's basement.

When I move domiciles, and lairs, it will take at least one month to recreate everything I need to function again. Until that time, I am a lairless leonine zombie.

All this is to say that when we move, and my internet is cut, my books, files, and pens are boxed away, my clothes covered with infant nervous indigestion, you'll know why it's hard to reach me.

P.S. my brother thinks I'm more like a bear than a lion; but that may be because of the Simpson's snippet about "Gentle Ben" the talk-show bear.

Bye Chandra

Today is the last day we use our cleaning-lady, who I've employed for the last four years. If anyone needs good, reliable and honest cleaning help, let me know.

Last Day

Today (Wednesday) is my last day of work. There is no way I can get everything I need done today (I lost Sunday to childrearing and Monday because the building had no A/C and felt like the Black Hole of Calcutta, and Tuesday to the Wretched Fast). After today, I'm on vacation - which means I'll show up to continue packing up my office, just with no tie.