Some Odds and Ends

I’m a lousy traveler. For one thing, I’m still on Pacific time. No matter how hard I try, I keep mentally subtracting three hours from the clock. I got up at 9 and it felt like the crack of dawn (I had been up until about 3 AM that morning). I ate breakfast at 11 and it felt just fine. I had lunch at 3 PM and dinner felt very early at 8 PM. It’s like I’m in a completely different kind of time zone: DST (David Subjective Time).

An observation about American Airports: Since 9-11, there has been another change to them besides the obvious security measures. It’s the voice announcements on the Public Address System, which have now been standardized. The same woman who appears to be from somewhere in Texas can be heard from San Francisco to Seattle to Denver to Baltimore to Boston. It may be the most annoying voice I’ve ever heard in my life; midway between Schoolmarm, Televangelist and Motor Vehicle Administration Clerk. Her accent is horrific, and her tone is like fingernails scratching blackboards inside my eardrums. Passengers should be aware that BAGGige left unattended will be confiscated and DIStroyed at the discretion of Security Personnel. Thenk-yoo for your cooperation. I’m convinced that this woman was not some incredibly lucky Houston Broadcasting School drop-out, but had to be a friend of the Bushes, who got her this plum assignment and she probably gets a royalty check every time we endure another Thenk-yoo.

Installed OS X 10.4 (AKA, Tiger) last night. That’s why I was up till 3 AM. Just kicking the tires. So far, I haven’t found Spotlight to change my life, but I did locate some files quickly. On the other hand, I was always such a careful filer for fear of losing something that I probably am not one of those people who will benefit from that new feature.

Tomorrow, at the crack of dawn (and I mean really at the crack of dawn - 6 AM EST, or 3 AM DST), we embark on our very last MIT Flea. Everything must go. That means the books, CDs, software, and anything else we’ve scavenged have to go. If we are lucky, we’ll leave with more cash than it costs to get a spot as a vendor ($25).

And, we’re back

I really should just install Ecto, my blogging client on my laptop, because I dislike using the online (web) interface to post to my blogs. The result is that when I’ve been on the road I haven’t done much in the way of updating this. And boy, has there been a lot to update!

Yes, we were on the road, back in Vancouver for a final visit before the move, and Seattle to visit with my brother’s family (even though my brother was in Brazil for most of the visit, but I did get to visit with my Sister-in-law and my niece) and for Pam to attend the STC (Society for Technical Communications) 52nd Annual Conference. While I was there, I also spent a day in the marvelous Seattle Public Library, and I also did some window-shopping at IKEA and Fryes for furniture and electronics that we’ll ‘need’ after the move.

But aside from all that, Murphy’s Law (which I remember from old Larry Niven books, could be expressed as in engineering terms as “The Perversity of the Universe tends toward a Maximum”) determined: During the 6 or so hours that we would be relatively difficult to reach, i.e. while we were in flight — that would be the time when an offer to buy our house would come in. After frantic calls and messages left on our cell phone accounts and various voice mails, we managed to communicate and accepted the offer. Also, although I don’t want to jinx anything or count any chickens before they are hatched, the prospect of me having employment as we arrive in Vancouver appears to be getting brighter. No details yet; there are still many hoops to jump through. Nevertheless, I’m becoming more and more optimistic that the key items we’ll need to start a new life in Canada are lining up.

Speaking of items needed to immigrate, now is as good as any other time to list the things we’ve needed to get in order to immigrate to Canada, just in case anyone else out there is thinking of the same thing (and I know you are, lib’rals!)

1. First there are the forms to fill out. You’ll need to list everywhere you’ve lived since you were 18, and every job you’ve ever had since you were 18. You’ll need letters of reference from the jobs you’ve held in the last 5 years or so, verifying your start dates, end dates, if applicable, your job title, and your salary.
2. You’ll need a current passport and…
3. An official copy of your birth certificate,
4. An official copy of your marriage certificate if you’re married,
5. Special ‘resident cut’ passport photos, which have to have been taken in the last 6 months or so,
6. Official FBI and State Dept.- accepted Fingerprints. There are places that take them.
7. Also, proof of 6 months worth of living expenses (hopefully not a huge amount depending on where you are moving)
8. If you’ve ever lived abroad (like as a student), proof from the police department of that area that you have no record. I actually still need to provide this one.
9. Did I mention you can’t have a police record? That includes your native country as well, while you’re at it. You don’t have to provide proof of it, but if you have any record, you’re pretty much out of the running.
10. For a driver’s license, it really helps to get the last 7 years of your driving record. Otherwise you have to get a learner’s permit and then take the Canadian Driver’s test

That’s about it. We hired a lawyer to help us out, so that adds some, but hopefully it will help expedite our work. He’s already helped us head off some problems when we didn’t fill in the correct ‘family’ members on that part of the form - turns out you need to include all of your immediate family, living or dead, and their current addresses (if alive). So if you have a sibling or parent who has a record with the State Dept., then you’ll probably run into trouble was well.

So this was a good trip. We got lots of stuff done with nailing down the apartment that we’ll be buying when we get there (it’s really a condo, but there’s no word for that in Canada - actually, they call it a ’strata’, but that refers more to the residents who manage the overall property - kind of like a coop, I guess).

I’ll have more later. Plan on uploading some photos to Flickr, so that will probably end up making an appearance here, too.