Almost Perfect

We had a fun time at the El Camino Reelers' 25th anniversary fly-in in San Jose the weekend of April 2nd (photos here.) Tuesday we moved. It's been packing and unpacking and dealing with changes pretty much 24/7 for weeks; excessor covered some things here.

As usual, Paul is my rock (and not in the hard and lumpy or heavy and dragging you to the bottom sense.) We work very well together, and even while moving there were only a few moments when we were tired enough to snap at each other. So my current earworm (lyrics to follow) has nothing to do with him....

[Depeche Mode mode]

On another world by another star
At another place and time
In another state of consciousness
In another state of mind

Everything was almost perfect
Everything fell into place
That you may reach a different verdict
Before the judge dismissed the case

Our Tivo HD died (likely hard disk failure) a few days before the move. Ordered the new Premier series HD and had it delivered that day after the move. Contrary to what Paul wrote, it worked okay, but Comcast wasn't addressing its cablecard correctly, so HBO is still blocked. They're sending a tech tomorrow.

The Ethernet port in the media cabinet at the old place stopped working a year ago, so we said goodbye to some of the nice features (Amazon Unbox downloaded movies, access to media on our PCs, etc.) Well, since I was able to get all the new place's network up (except, mysteriously, in Paul's room), those features are back. David set up his Netflix account to do downloads, and we watched Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992) in a very high quality streaming HD from Netflix. The download speed is supposedly 20 mbps.

In a parallel universe
That's happening right now
Things between us must be worse
But it's hard to see just how

And everything could have been perfect
Everything in the right place
Then I wouldn't have to play the suspect
Accused, abandoned and disgraced

I didn't choose, I didn't pull the trigger
It wasn't me, I'm just a plain and simple singer
I heard the sound, I turned my head around
To watch our love shot down

The constant drudgery has worn me down. I am taking a little time here to post since David is trying to crash a Chorus concert. I found my checkbooks finally and can pay the estimated taxes due April 15th. My bedroom/office is the smallest of the three and has no room for my old desk, so I need to buy a new one. We need another CA King bed, Ikea doesn't sell them, and some small cabinets for the bathrooms, which have limited storage. There are unpacked boxes, cardboard, and foam packing sheets everywhere. The washing machine sounds like a turboprop taking off, the refrigerator water dispenser didn't work, the bulbs in the microwave/stove vent hood were burned out and the bulb sockets left in, the spring on the dishwasher door was broken so it falls down hard. All these things are being worked on, and take time. The landlord seems quite willing to help, and he turned up yesterday to measure for new blinds and struggle with the left-in bulb sockets while his kids waited in the car; he's a plumber about my age from Ulster, so we're cousins of some sort.

In another lonely universe
We're laying side by side
Where no one's hurt and no one's cursed
And no one needs to hide

And everything is almost perfect
Everything is almost right
There are never any conflicts
There are never any fights

Paul drove to Palm Springs yesterday to spend time with his friend Jim, in from Connecticut. Today David and I worked out at Golds on Market, then shopped Cliff's Variety for the bulbs we needed. As we moseyed up Castro to the wine store, we ran into Mark-the-masseur and Jason-of-Glee-lipsync-fame, and others. Which reminds me a little of why we moved.

David's leaving in two weeks and will be back in early June. We'd like to have the housewarming before he leaves, but who knows when the house will be ready?