Looks Like I'll Have To Sell The House

[Grogan]

Are you going to have to go back and forth while the house is selling, or are the realtors going to handle everything once you leave?

[Zema Bus]

My realtor will handle everything, once I leave I won't be coming back.

[Grogan]

Well that's good, I hope it sells expediently. Chances are it will, some houseflipping firm might snap it up, even.

[Zema Bus]

I'm about to sign for a moving company to move everything on March 11, and down at the bottom of the agreement it mentions tipping, and how that's standard practice in the moving industry. So I looked up what a typical tip is for moving - 15 - 30% of the total cost of moving. In my case that would be around $600 cash, which is supposed to be divided between each of the crew, and it could be a different crew at the other end of the move. So the expensive move will be more expensive. I don't keep that kind of cash lying around they'll have to settle for checks.

[Grogan]

Everybody has their hand out for a tip. This just facilitates employers keeping wages down, really. That's ridiculous that you have to fork out that much money in gratuities... to movers. It's almost extortion.

[Zema Bus]

I hate the tipping culture in general, but it really takes the cake when it's expected with that big of an expense. Yeah employers in a lot of industries are abusing it to make their customers directly pay their employee's wages. It should be illegal. They directed me to use Zelle for the deposit. My credit union participates with Zelle, but they have a low daily limit, I had to find it by trial and error, so it would take several days just for the deposit. But once past that I hit another error message, saying that the transaction cannot be completed at this time, with no hint as to why. Everything seems to be correct, so I asked them to verify the recipient information. I may have to just use a credit card for this, it'll cost more that way but it would just work and I'm already stressed out enough. I just want to get that done so I can focus on finishing my packing etc. Looking it up it sounds like Zelle problems like that are common. It sure hasn't made a good impression on me.

[Grogan]

I'll tip someone that brings food to me (in cash... this way it's their choice to pocket it, or declare it etc.) whether a waitress or a delivery driver, but that's about it. Everybody else gets their wage, or charges their fee for service. Some places might have a tip jar on the counter, and that's OK, I don't have to participate (and I don't).

One time at Boston Pizza, I was paying for pickup with my credit card and it was odd that the girl said she had to go and get the credit card machine, when it was sitting right there. She went over to the bar area and got it. The reason became apparent soon enough, the NEW machine made it difficult to not leave a tip. There was no option to skip it... you had to enter 0.00 to not leave one. Most people would feel guilty doing that, but I resented that tactic so it didn't bother me.

[Zema Bus]

I get grocery deliveries and I always add a tip.

I ended up contacting my credit union to see if they could figure out what was going on with Zelle. And they did, Zelle was being flagging it as fraudulent and blocking it. So they said they'd contact Zelle to have them unblock it. But, they said it would take 48 business hours, or 8 business days before it would work. So I just used a CC. March 11 should be an interesting day

[Grogan]

It's going to seem like the worst day of your life (that's how I always feel on moving day)

Credit card interest is just the price you have to pay for convenience. I just think of it like that.

[Zema Bus]

I got my truck serviced today by a mobile service tech, and now it's good to go. But he recommended getting new tires. I had considered about that since they are pretty old now - 15 years. They don't look that bad, but I got to thinking maybe it wouldn't be worth chancing it halfway across the middle of nowhere. I'll likely be traveling at 80 MPH once I'm in AZ. The speed limit there is 75 so everyone drives at a minimum of 80, and even at that speed when I've been in AZ before I was getting passed by semi's. That would be a bad time for a blowout. I found some mobile tire installers, it would beat waiting around for hours in a tire store. It's going to cost over $1,000. I guess better now than after the price of everything spikes in the near future.

[Grogan]

LOL... it'll be vultures circling if you break down in bumfuck Arizona.

Mobile service techs, we don't have anything like that around here. I don't even think there are mobile tire services anymore (other than calling a tow truck).

[mlangdn]

I had some tires on my pop-up camper that were 17 years old. Tread looked great! I was bringing it home last October and one exploded. Dry rot caught up with me. I only use that camper once a year during fall break. I have a regular pull behind big camper for her and I. That one was for the grandkids. I say was because I sold it last Monday. Grandkids are growing up and away. Circle of life stuff...

[Grogan]

Yeah, kids grow up and you miss having fun with them. I remind them how nice they used to be, too

I had a blow out going about 130 km/h (around 80 mph) on a busy freeway once. It was a brand new tire, not a week old. I was lucky to keep control and get to the shoulder. Not really enough room to change to the spare at the side of the road with speeding vehicles whizzing past but back then, tow trucks patrolled the freeways looking for fares so it wasn't long (most people didn't have cell phones yet). Since the tires were bought at Canadian Tire (a.k.a. "Crappy Tire") that has stores in most towns and cities, I just got towed to the nearest one and was back in business in half an hour or so.

Our speed limits are stupidly low, and most people ignore them. 100 km/h on freeways and 80 km/h on normal highways (with a few, like the Trans Canada Highway 17 at 90 km/h). You're almost expected to go 20 km/h over the limit (cops won't bother you) but nowadays, they bend a stunt driving/street racing provision to lay criminal charges at 50 km/h over the limit on highways (amended to 30 km/h over in 50, 60 and 70 km/h zones last year) and they impound the vehicle for 7 days (costs thousands to get it out too), no matter who owns it. That's abuse of the law... at first judges were admonishing and throwing charges out, but under Conservative governments it took hold and now it's precedented.

[Zema Bus]

I had to reschedule my moving day to March 13th after one of the utilities said they wouldn't be starting service until that day. Then they come back and say it'll start March 10 But it's just as well, that'll give me Thursday through Sunday instead of just 3 days. Now it's time to see if I can get Internet access going before I arrive.

[Grogan]

There's never enough time for moving, so that should take some of the pressure off.

(Some people procrastinate and don't even start packing until the night before moving day. Like someone you know in Canada )

[Zema Bus]

Looks like I'm going to be moving in the rain, maybe all the way there. I got new tires today.

newtires.jpg (151.51 KiB) Viewed 78443 times

I got a GPS tracker, I'm going to put it in a computer case so that I'll know where my stuff is and when to expect the moving truck to arrive at the new house, as long as it works as advertised. It uses a phone app to show where the tracker is on a map.

[Grogan]

Heheh... now that's a clever idea. Real time tracking. Hopefully you won't catch them goofing off, with the tracker staying still at some saloon while you wait for hours

That's a pretty beefy looking tire tread there. It looks like it would leave a mark.

[Zema Bus]

I retook the picture during the daytime:

newtires0.jpg (168.14 KiB) Viewed 77126 times

newtires2.jpg (157.96 KiB) Viewed 77126 times

newtires1.jpg (132.43 KiB) Viewed 77126 times

I spent most of the day packing and throwing out yet more stuff, despite all the time I've already put into it, and I still have more to go. I'm trying to get as much done as I can before Monday since I don't have much free time during the week, and I have a deadline coming up soon. It's exhausting, wish I'd started working on this years ago lol! I'm going to take a look at the tracker now.

[Grogan]

That should be good for off roading in Arizona, with those tires

Yep, there's always more stuff that you forgot about. My last move was out of an apartment I lived in for 2 years, where I didn't start until the day before. It took me most of the night hauling garbage and junk out to the bin in the parking lot (and the superintendant was pretty pissed with me for filling it right up near the beginning of the week lol). I had to stay up all night to be ready for the movers, though I bought these huge plastic totes to facilitate packing shit up quickly.

I can't imagine having to move out of a house that you've lived in for decades.

[Zema Bus]

I'm feeling now how I bet you felt then lol! I don't even think I'm going to have time to do proper labeling of the moving boxes, I'm just trying to get it done in time.

That GPS tracker - junk! The product listing said no subscription required and it said nothing about needing a SIM card. But the instructions that came with it said it won't work without one. There was no SIM card port anywhere on it, so I thought maybe inside. So I pried it open, and there was no SIM port, I took the whole thing apart looking for one but there weren't any. I tried the associated phone app, and it tries to steer users into a subscription. There were two options, the subscription, or a 7 day trial of the subscription. I might explore it again but it turned me off.

When going on long trips I like to have a GPS navigator so I got a cheap one, about $60. It was called a Jimwey on the product page but what I got was unbranded. The map looked kind of crude compared to the GPS units I used in the early 2000's. I went to add my destination address, and it wouldn't let me, it would only let me enter a small handful of locations outside the immediate area. There was a Google Maps search function, but every time I tried that it just said it couldn't find the server. It doesn't use WIFI, so I don't know how it would be connecting to a server. But it was useless and wasted a lot of time. It was especially disappointing after wasting time with the GPS tracker. Also, they advertised free lifetime map updates, but the manual said they charge for map updates. So I'm sending it back. I ordered a name brand GPS, a Garmin. It's one of their cheaper models at $130 but at least it's a brand I'm familiar with and it's more likely to do what it's supposed to do. And you can't really trust Amazon reviews anymore, Louis Rossmann was right about that. I checked other sources before I ordered the Garmin.

[Grogan]

Fucking gadgets, eh? Yes, those Garmin units are a good bet. Lots of data too.

It's not Garmin, but have that shit built into the console computer in my car (Ford Fusion). I seldom use it as I rarely go anywhere I don't know. It has voice commands and shit so you can operate it while driving, but it's also menu driven where you can start typing a destination and it fills it in for you etc. (that's how I do it, I hate voice commands)

[Zema Bus]

My truck is too old to have that kind of stuff. It's a 2007, I think that was maybe 4 or 5 years before they started putting screens in most vehicles. I remember when they started putting them in these trucks I wondered if mine could be retrofitted given that the rest of the truck was the same.

I have an appointment to have 1 Gig fiber Internet set up in the new house Friday morning between 8 AM and noon, which probably means I'll get up super early and they'll show up just before noon. For the 1 Gig option I'll be paying less than what I'm currently paying for 600 mbps cable. The previous owner had the same ISP (AireBeam) so the cabling is already in place. I turned down their fabulous router rental, I've been using pfSense for ten years and I'll never use an ISP's rented router. So Thursday night (and all day Thursday) I will be offline. I'll be so glad when this week is over

I'm having the last of my junk picked up Wednesday, I found out the guy who has been picking it up the last 6 months has moved out of California, so it's going to be someone else. Guess this is contagious

[Grogan]

That's good, so you'll have Internet pretty quick. It should be straight forward seeing as the infrastructure is already there. Nowadays ISPs around here give you modem/router combos. They want to charge you for turning on the WiFi too lol (I have one now, but per my instructions it's in bridged mode with wifi disabled. I have access to it, but I didn't have to change anything... it's configured as a dumb modem)

The day is getting close

[Grogan]

In case this ends up being the last time you check in, good luck with the move and see you on the other side. Check in when you can.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan, I may pop in Wednesday night, hopefully it won't be another day with zero free time but I do still have a few things left to do before the movers arrive Thursday morning, including disconnecting everything.

[Grogan]

I always feel so "disconnected" when the computers get packed up

[Zema Bus]

My last post from California, and I am in sheer hell lol! Ran out of boxes so I resorted to garbage bags, and I still have a lot to do, I kept finding other things I needed to do, and then I'd get distracted by yet other stuff needing to be done. Hope they don't come at 8 AM, they said 8 - 10 AM. And I'm going to be sleep deprived, I was hoping to avoid that but it's just impossible. If only I didn't have to work everyday, this wouldn't have been a problem.

[Grogan]

Ouch, oh well, you probably weren't going to get much sleep anyway. If I have to do something in the morning, I have to stay up to do it. I canceled mornings decades ago, they don't exist, so it has to still be night for me if something causes me to exist

Anyway, take it one step at a time. It will all get done, one way or another.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan. Well I made it, it was a long day. I was up at 7 AM, couldn't get back to sleep with that looming so I got up and continued packing stuff. They showed up at 9 AM and helped with that, and loaded everything. By the time they left it was 1 PM and I had a few things to finish up and finally left around 1:30. So I ended up driving in the dark in an unfamiliar area. Driving through Phoenix on the freeway in the dark with lots of fast moving traffic and poorly reflecting lane markers was grueling, I was glad when I was out of that metro area. At least it wasn't raining by then. By the time they finished unloading it was almost midnight, and I had to get up early today to get Internet access setup. The movers were Russian, with heavy accents. At times it was tough to communicate but they were both nice. I'm finding that stuff from a 3,000 sqft house doesn't fit too well in a 1,600 sqft house, there's just no where to put stuff. And the bedrooms are smaller than my old house's. One of them is larger than the others, but the movers put a lot of moving boxes in there I have to unpack and sort through - those tall wardrobe boxes with computers, monitors, UPS's inside and stacked. I had to cut down one of them to get heavy items out, and those boxes are tough to cut and rip. I'm going to look into those Amazon shipping container based houses, maybe put one of those houses in the backyard for more space, they seem to be fairly inexpensive. First I have to get the old house sold, my listing agent is getting the ball rolling on that. In the meantime things are kind of in disarray and probably will be for a little while.

[Grogan]

Yay! You made it. It gets easier from here on (the only real pressure is waiting for the house to sell). You can start building your life again at your own pace. Important things, like Internet and being able to function, eat, sleep etc... unpacking the rest isn't urgent.

It will be a while before it starts to feel like home.