Blogger and blogger status and how I spent my day ...

I mean, I have things to do but I sat wasting time this morning just trying to get my blog template updated to include Jen's Nobody's Here.

I tried to add a link to Jen earlier this month, once she'd ditched Bloggy Goodness and resurrected as Nobody's Here, but my patience wore out. This time I was determined, no matter how many times Blogger spun its wheels and refused to allow me access to my Blogger archive, no matter how many times Blogger barfed and cut-out while it was updating my template with Jen's new blog link on it, no matter how many times ...

But there I sat wasting time ...

I had a 40 cu yd drop box (note: not a Dumpster®) dropped off this morning. Paid for it yesterday. Drove down to the Green Valley Disposal offices and put over $700 delivery and rental fee on my Visa and signed off on the rules and asked for delivery today, this morning preferably.

Rules include "no dirt, rocks, concrete, bricks" and if you load them in anyway, you may get hit with an almost $50 per ton overage charge. One cubic yard of dirt, rocks, concrete, and/or bricks weighs approximately a ton, I was told. (Who knew?) 40 cu yds of yard waste and dead lawn chairs, on the other hand, supposedly weigh about 5.5 tons. Overage charges apply if the weight goes over 5.5 tons. If the drop box weighs over 10 tons all bets are off.

According to my lease agreement, I get the drop box for seven days. If I want to keep it longer, GVD will charge me a bit over $100/day. Yikes.

His nibs called the guy whose crew will be clearing out the yard and moving the dead water heater and toilet and basketball hoop and what-not out of the horse corral, and getting rid of the pile of crap outside the door here, and getting rid of the pile of crap down by the main house and clearing out the yard and clearing out the yard and clearing out the yard.

They'd be here first thing today, he promised, if it wasn't pouring rain. Well, it wasn't pouring rain. It was drizzling off and on. I was out moving stuff into distinct "take this away" "do not touch this" piles. Lunch time came and went and they still had not arrived. Afternoon. Dusk. Evening and they're still not here. I have seven days ... and one day has been completely wasted.

Forty cubic yards is a lot! BIG BOX!

I was promised delivery today and the staff at the office noted that I wanted it first thing, if possible. Note made, I was told, but no promises. Last night I put out the garbage. His nibs had already put out the yard cleanup recycle from some gross raking I'd done during the week and the recycle box of metal scraps|plastic|styrofoam from the partial garage cleanup this weekend. I took out the garbage can of garbage and about thirty paper grocery bags full of paper recycle last night. Moved the pickup into the dirt access driveway on the west side. Tucked the Mini off to the side to make room for the whenever-it-will-happen delivery of the drop box.

This morning at 6:22A, I heard a loud thunk in the driveway. I peeked out to make sure they were dropping the box where I'd planned. They did. I fixed my usual mug of espresso then moved the pickup back into the driveway and tucked the Mini up next to it.

Allz I could think as I looked at the drop box was, "Forty cubic yards is a lot!"

The guy doing the yardwork had looked at our (relatively small) piles of crap and figured in his head what he was going to rip out of the yard and told me to get a 40 cu yd drop box. I trust he'll fill it. If not, I'll ask the neighbors if they have anything they'd like to toss in.

Next up! call the stagers and choose a stager to use. Call the painters and choose a painter to use. Call the pressure washers and choose a pressure washer to use. When everything's set, we'll need a final go-through house cleaner too.

Had I mentioned? Chuck was over last Friday and current plan is to have the house ready to sell by May first. Four weeks. Aieeeee!

I spent most of yesterday at the book warehouse space, boxing up books. The books are almost all boxed. After the push yesterday, just a few (maybe eight or ten) boxes worth are still left to box up and label -- labels go around kitty corner corners with contents on each side of the corner ... so however the box is placed, the contents show. Does that make sense? Am I too compul^H^H^H^Hnscientious?

I also need to box up the few books remaining in this place here and there -- a box or two in the front office, a box or two in the living room, a box or two in the bedroom. Box. Label. Move them over to the leased warehouse. Need to move the last of the bookcases too, including the one in this office that's tamped full with genealogy "work" and stamp collection paraphernalia and albums and stamps.

Once the bookcases and book boxes are gathered in one place, we'll call Two Women and a Truck or their equivalent to move the boxes of books out of the warehouse space and up to the loft space. That will free up the warehouse space for all the stuff we have to move out of this place before the place can be staged and go on the market.

Aieeeee!

It's all logistics, all dominoes. PERT chart where art thou?

The warehouse has four rooms. The room I was working in yesterday has 170 boxes of books and thirty bookcases. The room next to it, where I was also working yesterday, has 130 boxes of books. I shifted bookcases from that room to the other room yesterday so they'd all be in one place. The books in the back two rooms are mostly boxed, with a few piles of books here and there. The far back room also has a farm-type dining table that was Case's and the four chairs that go with it, rugs, miscellaneous other stuff. Two Women and a Truck will move the books out. We'll fill the place up with the rest of our barnacles and get the house painted, staged and on the market.

May 1 is the target date.

Susan, our San Francisco real estate agent, said Now!Now!Now! If you have to rent a barn to clear out your house, rent a barn!

We don't need a barn, we have 1000 sq ft of warehouse space and we have until mid-August, when the lease is up, to sort through and move, giveaway whatever we've stash in the warehouse.

A friend made a comment in e-mail last week,

*sigh* Our ancestors lived with what they could carry.

Yes, I answered. "And in the old days you couldn't buy a gig of memory for $69."

I have a couple quotations that come up each time I log on:

He who would travel happily must travel light.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
- Charles Dudley Warner

Above and beyond those, I have a note written in 36pt Comic Sans:

CLEAR OUT THE PLACE ... NOW!!!

I've been here going on twenty-eight years. His nibs has been here going on thirty, when he took over from his father, who left some of his barnacles behind. His father built the house in 1948-1949. The barnacles have barnacles have barnacles.

We needed Chuck's push, Chuck's, "Time is of the essence!"

The prep work is coming along. Soon the yard work will begin. The piles of junk will be dumped in the drop box.

The place is emptying. The books are boxing. Slowly. Slowly.

Needs to be done in four weeks. Completely done and ready for some lucky soul to take over. I spent today partially clearing the space back over there that's tamped full of boxes and what-not. Aieeeee!

So what was up with Blogger anyway ... Blogger, which was driving me nuts this morning?

I discovered today (after bashing my head against the wall for a couple hours) that Blogger was having issues. I've added Blogger Status to my Bloglines feed list.

Current entry:
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

We're currently in the process of rolling back a bad kernel upgrade that has significantly impacted the service. Restored app servers are coming back online and all should be repaired by the end of today.

Update: The rollback has been completed and performance is starting to stabilize across the appservers.

And, indeed, I can now log on to my Blogger account and after updating this bit will try again to get my template updated with Jen's Nobody's Here added to my m.w: baked fresh list.

Day's over. May tomorrow be more productive!