Well, I am back from Arkansas for likely the last time. The original plan was to fly down on Friday, supervise the packup & loading (and make sure that the movers didn't forget anything) and sign a few forms on Saturday, then fly back on Sunday. Almost immediately after booking my tickets, though, the movers asked if they could do the packup on Friday and load on Saturday. I agreed, beginning to wonder if I really needed to go back down to Arkansas at that point. Last week they asked if they could do the loading on Friday too.

The long and the short of it was that the moving company had packed and loaded everything before I touched down in Little Rock (excepting one cupboard of corning-ware and an empty suitcase that they missed). Ah well. It was good to see the house one last time, if more than a little depressing. Also, the movers loaded the wine. Yay!

On the flight back I ran into more delay at the Calgary airport than I've ever experienced before. It took me over 25 minutes just to make it from the airplane to the beginning of the customs area (at which point there was at least another 30 minutes worth of disneyland-like lineups back and forth before you got to talk to anybody). Fortunately at that time I could get into the Nexus lineup. That pass is worth its wait in gold some days. Still, I can at least understand that if for some reason that they have about a dozen planes landing at once its going to cause a delay.

The parking situation was another matter entirely. They normally have 8 tills open to pay your parking tab upon exiting. In this case they only had 2 open. It turns out that their automatic pay system was down. Fine. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is them labeling 4 of the 6 closed tills as "open" and allowing traffic to split into 6 lanes before they can see the little pylons that they've put in to block your way. This forced the mother of all traffic jams as people tried to merge 6 lanes into 2 that was actually backing up traffic so far that people were having delays getting in to the parkade to park. Naturally the airport was still charging people for the extra time needed to exit the parkade.

Ahh Calgary. How I've missed you.

Happy Dance!

Woot! The buyers countered my own offer with a realistic offer of their own. I'm making a little bit on the house, though I have to give them the lawn tractor, fridge, and freezer. I get to keep the washer & dryer (by which my parents get almost new washer & dryer). All in all, very fair - especially for me. I won't be completely satisfied until I've got the paperwork, but it's definitely a stress relief for me.

Wow. It only took me two days to be fed up with the cold and the snow. I really did become a wimp down south. In actuality, I think that the cold is easier to deal with than 105 degree heat with 90% humidity. I just like to complain.

I found an apartment in town. South facing, good size, decent price, and only seven blocks to the office. The only real bummer is that the kitchen is tiny. I'll have to work on that to see if I can find a way to extend it. My stuff should be arriving around November 2nd, so I'm looking forward to that.

Also, some people finally made an offer on my house. They low balled me on it, but it's a start. My realtor is cautiously optimistic that she can get them up to a more reasonable price.

Whew. Busy couple of weeks.

Got back to Calgary, bought a car, went to my cousin's wedding, got set up for work, and am still in the process of apartment hunting. The house still hasn't sold, but I'm not worried... yet.

I've never had as much problem with the dry air up here as I'm having this time around. I'm also having enough sinus problems that I think that I should see a doctor.

Still, it's good to be back.