thebaldgeek

The excitement and the complaint are not related, but it made for a more interesting title putting it that way…….

I’m excited because we had some weather today…..!!!!!! Yah! It was overcast and a cold north wind was blowing. Wow, our first non perfect day! While it did not rain, and so would have passed for a pretty good day in Ballarat, it was really neat to see something other than clear blue skies and perfect temperature!

The complaint I have had is from a good friend (not going to name names, but he lives in Melbourne)….. He said that I blog far too much and that he cant keep up. He wants to see shorter, less often blogs, and he also said that getting a 1 line summery once a week would be better……. Duno, I know 3-4 of ya read this, and its as much for yous as it is for me to keep a ‘diary’ of the adventure….. I see his point. I would hate to sit down in 5 years time and re-read it all……
Anyway, think I will just keep going and see if I get another complaint….

When we left Australia, we sold all our furniture, the first thing to be sold was the piano. We told Amy that we would buy her a new one when we got over here. We were very clear that despite what she wanted, she would be getting a digital one (both for me as much for the neighbors). Tonight was her night. We went and bought her a piano. After test playing about 5 of them she chose a Yamaha YPG-625.
I think she will be very happy with it. Terry might use some of the other features in it to get a bit interested again. If my web server was not going to show up some time, I might even look at the ‘learn’ feature of the thing, but the lure of cameras, weather stations and internet telescopes will be too great at the moment.

The only other news is that Freddy has got her humming bird feeder up and while we are yet to see any drink out of it, there are 2 of them hanging about in the tree out side our apartment and that is totally thrilling Freddy.

Daylight saving time started in California this weekend, so that means there is now 6 hours difference between the east coast of Australia and the time in the west coast of America.
The way I work it out is to just add 6 hours to the time now, and then call it yesterday. Of course you have to watch when the adding takes you over midnight. For example, I’m typing this entry at 7:15pm, adding 6 hours makes it 1:15am, but its the same day.
Daylight saving ends in Victoria on Sunday April 6th. At that time, it will be 7 hours difference.
The best rule of thumb to use is to remember in the Auzi summer, its 5 hours difference, in Auzi winters, its 7 hours.

I tried telling myself five or six times today that in exactly 3 weeks it will be my first day of work at Opto22……. It has not sunk in. Its just too amazing, starting a new job, in a new country, in three weeks. Wow.
I’m excited and nervous. Its going to be a big change, but I am looking forward to seeing what roll(s) I can play at Opto.

The weekend in Apollo Bay went really well. It was great to spend some time with my sister and her family. We all had a hoot watching the old home movies Gary and Dan converted to DVD for us.
The stars were amazing, I will post the web address as soon as I get the photos up.
The surf was cold, but you got used to it after a while. The kids enjoyed the swim, it was nice to share it with them, even Freddy got into the waves.

Um, when you actually look at the calendar, and not just presume that April starts on a Monday, you will see that I start work on a Tuesday. So, that makes it 3 weeks today, not yesterday…… It might seem trivial, but in fact, its not…… You see, I now have an extra day I did not know I had, and thats pretty neat……going to be a busy week that week, and every moment counts!

Since we now know where we are going to be living (unit 68) for the first 6 months in California, I was able to ring Time Warner and book a time to have cable internet connected to ‘our’ apartment. It was super smooth, and a very easy process (lets hope it works in reality just like the phone call). I had to charge it to my Australian Visa card for the moment, but at least we should be on air between 9am and 12pm on Tuesday. Thats the day after we arrive. So we will just make sure that Freddy is home, and we are good to go.
Here is the kicker. Its cable, so its 6 megabit down, and 1 megabit up, so its nice and fast, but the really neat thing is its unlimited!!!! Yeeehar! Finally I get to have the internet we have always read and dreamt about!!! No more checking your usage page every few days to make sure you are pacing out your usage to last a whole month! Ah yes, welcome to America, the land of all you can eat internet…….
(Yeah, yeah, I know, I need to get a life, but hey, I am a geek and net usage is ‘important’ to me).