It's amazing what a difference a week can make. During the time I was back in Calgary the weather down here has improved dramatically. We're still getting a fair amount of cloud cover (and rain), but the temperature is much warmer - around 20 - 25 C during the day, and warm enough at night that I still don't need a jacket. Not too bad. It's also noticeably more humid now, but nothing I can't handle*.

I did the inspection on my house the other day. I'm pretty happy with the finished product, all-in-all. There are just a few minor fixes to take care of** - scuffs and such. Everything's shaping up for me to be able to close on it by the end of the week. My stuff's scheduled to arrive on the weekend (which for once, I won't be working), so with any luck I can call myself moved in by this time next week. We've caught up with our customer's schedule at work and in fact jumped ahead of him, so I've actually got a slow week coming up, which is not a bad thing in my opinion. The 80 hour work weeks were starting to get to me.
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* I don't doubt that August will be a different story.
** Who forgets to make a vent for the dryer?

No Turning Back Now.

Well, terms have been agreed upon, my apartment is packed and on it's way down, and I'm back in Arkansas awaiting it all.

Thanks to everyone out there. A week was not nearly enough time to say goodbye to you all, so get your buts down here to visit me, dammit!

One Last Hurrah.

If I've ever experienced anything more depressing in my life than packing up for this move, I blocked it from my mind long ago.

Honestly, the deliberate act of going through all my accumulated junk and deciding "That goes with me. That gets thrown out. X can have that, (s)he can make better use of it than me" is less like getting ready for a garage sale and more like getting ready for my own funeral. Unnecessarily morbid? Possibly, but true nonetheless.

Sweet Relief - Finally

Finally, I get a full day off. I've been working 12 hour days for the last two weeks, and only been taking it slightly easier on the weekends. I was finally able to clock out at around 3:00 yesterday. First stop: Pulaski County and the nearest liquor store.

Why are you looking at me like that? I don't have a problem. I can quit any time I want to. I just don't want to right now.

My time down here has been completely exhausting. I knew that starting up a new district would be rough, but I didn't know how rough it would be. Fortunately, more wrinkles are being ironed out every day, so hopefully before long I'll actually be able to do some serious relaxing. Right now I'm so burnt out that I'm not really in the mood to do much of anything. I had originally planned on going golfing today, but instead I moseyed down to Little Rock again and then back home to kick back with a beer or two. Or three.

House stuff moves slowly. My boss has been down here helping with getting us off the ground and has been more busy than I have, so there hasn't been much progress made on the official transfer paperwork yet. This puts a bit of a delay in the purchasing process. It's been frustrating, but I am assured that the paperwork will be ready by early this week.

And now that I've actually had a little bit of free time the loneliness has kicked in. It never ceases to amaze me that, despite the fact that I tend to be pretty antisocial, I tend to be a relatively social creature. Just because I don't talk much doesn't mean I don't enjoy hanging out with my friends. My friends that are roughly 2000 miles away now.

This has the potential to be a rough few years, I think.

Sweet Zombie Jesus, I Need A Drink!

What a week. I'd rather not go into details, but suffice it to say the QC portion of my job has not been easy. I've been working late all week and yesterday as well. I finally got this afternoon off and took the opportunity to drive into Little Rock and see what it's like.

Honestly it wasn't that bad, although I only made it to the River Market. Unfortunately, it appears that Arkansas doesn't believe in staying open on Sundays. Outside of the restaurants and big chain stores nothing was open - and that includes the liquor stores. At least I managed to get out and away from the shop and hotel

So I'm buying a house. I've managed to, in my spare time, find a wonderful little place about five minutes west of town. Construction still isn't done, but it should be ready by April first. A nice little one floor place with a decent kitchen and a huge yard - nearly an acre. By the standards around here that's actually pretty tiny, but you can't get smaller yards around here. Everybody wants huge yards and swimming pools etc.

Outside of that, there's not a lot happening. My back's feeling better - not great, but not nearly as bad as it was. Thanks to all for your support and suggestions.