I dream of rain

The movers show up here in about four hours. I'm wide awake, having given up attempting to sleep after being repeatedly woken up all night.

Tired. So tired.

Everything is packed, save for the pets and shaftnet itself (which I will retrieve on Saturday). It's finally happening.

...I'll see y'all on the other side. And catch up the photo backlog.

Today I took down my Golden Pothos (aka Devil's Ivy). It as a mere four or so feet long when it came home, but now, its shorter vines are about ten feet long, and its longer ones pushing 25 feet or so. It had been my goal to snake its vines all the way around my florida room; I suppose I will have to see how this dream may carry over to my new digs. I'll get the keys tomorrow afternoon, and the plants will all come along for the ride.

The trusty (and slightly crusty) IBM Model M keyboard that's followed me through four jobs. So far.

A shame I have six rolls of really gawdawful crap I need to use up.

(and dials and knobs, oh my!)

As an added bonus, this image number out of the camera was '6502'. Stick that in your numerology pipe and smoke it!

I woke up this morning after about four hours' sleep, finding myself utterly unable to get back to sleep. I was tired, reasonably comfortable in my otherwise-empty bed, absolutely no reason to get up at any time in particular.. and yet, sleep eluded me. Again.

Sleep has always been a tease where I'm concerned. Even after thirty four years of near-nightly experience, I have little clue how it works.
Every morning my returned consciousness is surprised that it shut down and lost time, and no idea how it got to that point.

Tired isn't the same thing as sleepy. Indeed, I usually feel about as tired waking up as I did before I fell asleep. Indeed, sleep just seems like a collosal waste of time.

I suppose this time my sleeplessness could be attributed to stress, what with the first resignation of my career, my pending move (five days!) and temporary unemployment -- though after my unused vacation days are cashed out, I'll actually overlap with the new job. I suppose this means I'm tecnnically on vacation rather than unemployed.

And what a vacation it promises to be, with at least three round trips to my new digs, 127 miles south. I'm leaving my home of the past nine years, which is both the longest I've lived at one address and the longest I've lived in any one city. Renting out the house I've poured so much time, money, and effort into. Relocating two middle-aged cats, a snake that once again refuses to eat, and an indignant betta fish.

I'm starting over again. I need to find new dives to eat at, an (honest) mechanic, get lost many times over in a strange metro area, and (most importantly) a new nail salon. I'm sort of abandoning my field of eleven years' expertise (802.11/WiFi) and jumping ship to Bluetooth, Zigbee, and the other members of the 802.15 family.

I have to make new friends. Perhaps even a relationship. Or at least a kayak. Sure, I've done this sort of up-and-move thing before, but this is the first time I'm really leaving somewhere I'd chosen to be and invested heavily into.

But I should end this ramble and get on with something productive. Like my week-long photographic backlog..

It's a shame we didn't have a chance to do a proper shoot last weekend, but we did manage to get a few off-the-cuff shots in.

Yesterday I took home the last of my personal effects from my soon-to-be-ex employer -- my keyboard. It is a twenty-year-old IBM Model M that's seen me through four different jobs spanning fourteen years.

I'd already removed my other personal effects -- my stacking russian dolls of Bill Clinton and his women, poster prints of my photography, and my timeless 'Is it good for the company?' banner with the 'I (heart) Hooters' sticker affixed inconspiciously. There's a few stories there, naturally.

Yesterday I also revoked my work-related GPG and SSH keys, and removed my access priviliges from various internal systems that I (used to) control. No more access to source code and ticketing.

Today I remove my work account from my phone and IM clients. I'll leave the rest the IT "department", mostly to see if they have a comprehensive checklist.

I've tried to wrap up all my active projects, with varying degrees of success. All current clients have been notified, "final" software releases sent out, and the state of everything I can think of is documented.

So today, I find myself without much to get done. I'd assumed that I'd be kept busy with exit interviews and last-minute knowledge transfer, but so far, I don't have an agenda for the day.

And so it ges.

(Oh, I know I'm a week behind on photos, but needless to say, I've been busy)

Have some catching up to do, but I'll get to it all, I promise.

Packing's well underway.

This guy followed someone into my house last night; he ended up on one of the chains of my study's (spinning!) ceiling fan. With two cats in tow.