gerisullivan | Steps...forward and back

I like it here. I like it here a lot.

That's the quick'n'easy report at the end of my first week in Wales.

The longer report is the usual and all-but-overwhelming detail that accompanies any move. One deadbolt and two new handset locks installed; four more yet to go. Six doors?!? Yes, there are six doors...seven, really, thanks to the slider that goes onto the deck, but its locking mechanism is different. Eight, really, once you count the door into the attic loft, though for that one, I'll re-use the really nice handset lock I took off the main entry door.

I only received keys to the main entry door and deadbolt. So long as I always carried my keys with me, I wasn't able to completely lock myself out, but not having keys to any of the other doors made me very cautious whenever I used them. I'm still going to have to be careful -- unlike my old house, which had only door handles underneath the dead bolts, the locking handsets make it easier than I would like to lock myself out.

Yesterday was of the "one step forward, two steps back" sort. New office furniture was delivered -- a couple of hours early, even, but they brought the wrong desk. It *looks* like the right desk, but is missing three important aspects of the desk I selected (power center, drilled out bits in top for wires to disappear, and a finished back panel. I'm not putting the desk up against a wall, so that last bit is as important as the first two. The store is working on getting the right desk to me -- time to call them back and ask the likely timing on that.

Moving my interim end-table "desk" and computer connections out of the way for the furniture delivery led to my losing my high-speed connection for a few hours. It was an easy fix, one I should have started with -- the ether cable into the back of the cable modem didn't seat fully when I plugged stuff back in. No wonder neither my Linksys router nor my computer would talk to the world....

PROmote Communications is registered to do business in Massachusetts for the next four years, and I registered to vote. Still need to deal with the car, and with health insurance. I talked with the house painter last night; it looks like it's going to be early July for that.

I misunderstood the timing of getting my stuff from Minnesota, so I've got a few extra days to paint, lay shelf paper, and do the kazillion other things that need doing, all of which will fall off the radar once 8680 pounds of stuff shows up and all wants unpacking and arrangement.

burningriver is coming to help next week, and it looks like she'll be able to come back after Balticon, too. Other friends (WANOLJ) are also heading this way, one and two at a time, loaning me fans, extra pillows, and a featherbed (!), bringing stuff I've stored at their houses, and just plain adding to the enjoyable aspects of moving. Yes, there are many of those, easy though it is to focus on the sheer work and annoyance factors.

Baskerville, a black lab, is coming to stay for a couple of weeks, and

fredcritter's best beloveds are coming for a week in June. I so look forward to welcoming them here, and to their help as I continue to settle in.

I think I saw my first coyote yesterday, crossing the top of my driveway. Yellow iris are starting to bloom in the pond; bachelor buttons, phlox, bleeding hearts, violets, johnny jump-ups, and a plenitude of other flowers brighten the yard. And the woods...the woods are exactly what I wanted.

Yep. I like it here.