“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Monday, May 01, 2006
Daisy is a “Registered” Dog
We are now mostly settled in our home in New Jersey, but that is a topic for another posting. This past Sunday, we left the dogs alone in the house for about 8 hours while we drove Lynne’s mother to her home in Upstate New York. She had been with us a week, helping us unpack and get settled in. When we got home, the dogs were excited, of course. And, we noticed that Daisy was running around with a heater register attached to her neck.
Before we left Fort Collins we got each dog a new name tag with our NJ phone number on it and attached each bone-shaped tag to their collars. Apparently, Daisy laid down with her head on a floor-mounted heater register near the front door at some point, and when she stood up, the bone-shaped tag got caught in the register. She pulled it out of the floor and was walking around with it attached to her collar. We don’t know if this happened in the excitement of our homecoming, or if she had been like that for hours. It was pretty silly looking.
Posted under: New Jersey • by Rick on 05/01/2006 at 04:49 AM
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Friday, March 24, 2006
No Left Turn
One thing we have noticed about driving around in New Jersey is the prohibition on left turns. All turns, whether left or U, are made from an exit from the right-hand lane. Typicallly, you exit to the right and make a loop to a cross street where you can continue straight (executing a left turn) or go left (executing a U-turn). Since we are mostly unfamiliar with the roads and routes, this can be a major inconvenience. Often, you can see where you want to go, but can’t figure out how to get there. Making the required left- or U-turn may require you to drive another mile or so, first.
However, after driving around Fort Collins today, we realized the tremendous benefits of this scheme. First, since no one is making a left turn, they can’t hold up the traffic behind them. And, there are no left turn arrows at intersections, which eat up about 1/2 of the wait time at a red light. So, traffic flows much faster and more smoothly. I’ve decided it is a great idea. And, once we learn where the turn opportunities are, we’ll be able to get where we want to go pretty smoothly.
Posted under: New Jersey • by Rick on 03/24/2006 at 05:24 PM
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Thursday, March 09, 2006
Hectic Times
I know I’m not posting much recently. But, times are very hectic. We are handing a billion details associated with our move from Colorado, including:
Selecting a realtor to sell our house in Fort Collins
Arranging for various repairs and touchups to our house.
Working on the financing for the new house in New Jersey.
Dealing with utilities at both houses.
Getting medical checkups and follow-through before we lose medical coverage.
Sorting through all the stuff in our house, giving some away, throwing some away, arranging for other stuff to be moved.
Shutting down the cabin.
Getting the dogs vaccinations.
Finishing up my work here in Colorado.
And a billion other things that I can’t think of now (like moving my 401K to an IRA…)
Anyway, I’ll keep you updated!
Posted under: New Jersey • by Rick on 03/09/2006 at 09:00 PM
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Friday, March 03, 2006
We Are Moving to New Jersey
I’ve started a new category of topics on this site. It is called “New Jersey” and we’ll post information and insights related to our move from Fort Collins, Colorado to Hewitt, New Jersey.
I am fortunate to have the opportunity to join a great company based in Wayne, New Jersey. The people there are great, the work environment is superb, and their products are very exciting. I’ll post more details once I’m actually “on the job”.
Many people’s reaction upon learning about this move is complete surprise. First, I am a Westerner and most people just cannot imagine me wanting to move “back East”. Second, for some reason people in the West have negative images of New Jersey. Well both assumptions are false. I’m thrilled about the idea of living in the East. And, Lynne and I think New Jersey is a great place. We’ve found the people to be friendly and welcoming, the country side is beautiful, and we will have an opportunity to live in a new place and learn about a new part of the country. (Plus, we’ll only be a few hours from where Lynne was born and about 4 hours from her mom.)
So, when we get around to it, we’ll post articles here describing our move and life “back East”.
Posted under: New Jersey • by Rick on 03/03/2006 at 08:15 AM
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Monday, January 23, 2006
Science Fiction / Fantasy Novels
Recently, I’ve been reading novels by Jack McDevitt. He is a popular writer of science fiction / fantasy novels. I’ve read five of his books so far, and will likely read more! The books I’ve read are from two different ongoing character sets. One is focused on an antiques dealer who uses his detective skills and his partner to solve interesting space-age mysteries, I’ve read two books from this set—Polaris
The second set of books focus on the adventures of a faster-than-light spaceship pilot, Hutch, and the adventures she gets caught up in, which inevitably result is some heroic rescues toward the end. I’ve read Deep Six
I highly recommend all these books! I haven’t had so much fun with a novel in a long time. They are great, quick reads when you need to escape this world.
Posted under: Books I've Enjoyed • by Rick on 01/23/2006 at 01:38 PM
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