The Ongoing Work Stoppage

Living for almost a decade in various climes where it doesn't rain constantly kind of makes a guy soft. Living here is likely to make me marinated.

It's been kind of a busy month. I've got a driver's license and a cell phone, my worldly possessions are in the province and biding their time in a storage locker, and I'm still looking for a place to live. That should develop this coming week, fingers crossed. Sadly, I have yet to convince Rogers to let my phone send email, so no Crappy Camera Phone Theatre for a while.

I've spent a good deal of time working on those papers of mine, and the good news there is that the Davis one has been accepted by Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Woo. I got the reviews back two weeks ago (the paper was submitted in December), and they were very, very good. It's a great feeling to have something I struggled with for two years, with frequent doubts as to whether anybody else would actually find it interesting, be received so positively. Ha ha, Referee X, I have foiled you again!

Speaking of oblique Hydrogen Guy references, did you know there's a blog devoted to the science of Marmorkrebs? You know, those self-cloning crayfish? And the author has recently discovered "Dawn of the Crayleks". His comment is exactly the reaction I always shoot for.

Finally, still getting the odd piece of mail from the University of California, and I do mean odd. I had a package of impenetrable papers on continuing health coverage from the Post-doc plan's insurance provider, and it further shook my faith in the US's commitment to the War on Terror. I mean, first I find out it's easier to move an entire apartment's worth of crap into the US than into Canada (which requires lists in triplicate). Next, a large envelope with the words "Important COBRA Information enclosed" left the country with nary a red flag raised with the USPS, Homeland Security, or the so-called elite anti-terror squad, G.I. Joe.

I mean, come on, people. Never mind subduing Iraq or Afghanistan, start paying a little attention closer to home. What would Duke say?

"Hello, welcome to the ICBC Driver Services Centre. How can I help you?"

"Hi. I have a couple questions about renewing my license."

"Oh, yes?"

"So, originally I had a BC driver's license. Then I moved to Ontario, and now I've been out of the country for a couple years, during which my Ontario driver's license expired. And now I'm moving back to BC."

"And you want to know how you can renew your BC license, correct?"

"Right, exactly."

"It's been less than three years since your Ontario license expired, correct?"

"Yes."

"And do you have your old Ontario license with you, plus one form of ID such as a birth certificate or passport?"

"Yes, I do."

"Great. So, normally, what we would do is simply take that information from you, ask you a couple of safety questions just to confirm that you're aware of the differences between BC and Ontario traffic regulations, and then just reactivate your BC license, giving you a temporary paper license and taking your photograph for the permanent 5-year license , which we would send you in ten to fifteen business days — "

"Terrific, I was worried I'd have to take a driver's test — "

"– but since it's you, Dr. Evans, we're going to require you to defeat six angry cougars in unarmed combat."

So the movers came, the boxes and furniture and odds and ends were hauled away, and I spent the day cleaning like no man has cleaned before. I spent last night in a completely empty bed room snuggled in a sleeping bag, utterly exhausted.

Still, I had trouble getting to sleep. My brain is now just so used to flipping out, it kept thinking of new things to flip out about. I got to sleep eventually, but I had some bizarre dreams. It's all a little hazy now, but "All You Need is Love" featured prominently, and I was chasing someone wearing a gorilla mask around a lighthouse set, who turned out to be me, and I woke up trying to remember what the knee bone was connected to and thinking Leo McKern looked a lot better with the beard.

I have no idea, but it must mean something.

So now I'm sitting in the Sacramento airport now, waiting for my flight - it is genetically programmed into me to always be ridiculously early to the airport. I hate leaving things, places and people; I hate the idea that it's the last time I'll see something or someone that I like. I don't like change, I suppose.

Anyway. Onwards to The Futures!

Be seeing you.

1. Mishka's Cafe, from where I am currently corresponding. Wireless internet + really good tea.
2. The many excellent bookstores in Davis. Sweet Briar Books is only about two blocks from my apartment, and was honestly a factor in my taking the place; I found lots of stuff there I never expected to find, ever, and it always had lots of excellent science books on consignment from the publisher, for cheap. Bogey's Books, sadly closed just this last month, was another good used book store, and I somewhat regret not buying the coffee table sized, full watercolour edition of Three Men in A Boat that I saw there once. The Avid Reader is a small new bookstore, where I have spent a lot of money. And of course, there's Borders, which I mainly went for their massive manga aisle.
3. The weather. Seriously, this place is so not Ottawa. It's a little weird living someplace where warm and sunny is the default, and it doesn't rain from June to mid-October. This last month, the weather's been kind of crappy, but "kind of crappy" in Davis is the same as "at least we don't have to shovel it" in Vancouver.
4. Netflix. The reason I didn't go completely mad for the last two years.
5. The roundabouts on campus. Sure, maybe they take some getting used to, for about a day, but they're actually pretty cool.
6. The chocolate chip cookies at the UC Davis Coffeehouse.
7. Peet's Teas. Good tea, for a large chain.
8. There are palm trees. Outside. Also, citrus trees. And sometimes, cacti.
9. The US Postal service. They deliver on Saturdays. Those Netflix envelopes, which I was also sending and receiving from West Sacramento? Twenty-four hours. Canada Post would have done it in three days for twice as much in postage.
10. Being able to order from Amazon and other online retailers without paying import duty or "shipping to Canada" and having my order arrive in, usually, about a week, no matter where it's being shipped from in the US.
11. Living someplace that people actually want to visit.
12. Living close enough to San Francisco that I can actually go there whenever I want without much hassle. Not that I ever did, you know, but I could've.
13. Related to the above, the chance, however slim, that I could run into a Mythbuster.
14. Also related to the above, living within shoutin' distance of JR.
15. The UC Davis arboretum. A lovely bike path, beautiful gardens, a sort of pond-canal-creek thing for the ducks to swim around in.
16. All those Davis bike paths. It's been so long since I've biked with the "moving target" mindframe, I'll need extra body armour for a few weeks when I'm back in the Lower Mainland.
17. Being at one of the few universities in North America with an actual Department of Geology, as opposed to "Earth Sciences". Not a big deal, but kind of cool.
18. The Presidential primaries. No, seriously. I haven't enjoyed a political-contest-as-sporting-event this much since the Mulroney years.
19. Sunday mornings listening to "Car Talk" and "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me". Sure, I can download the podcasts, but it's not the same.
20. Ha, the US exchange rate favours me for a change! Ha ha ha… oh, wait. Never mind.
21. Davis, generally. It's a nice town, lots of trees - as opposed to much of the countryside which is dry, bare and flat.
22. Thai Recipes. So very very good. My parents actually liked it enough to eat there twice in a week.
23. The Davis Co-op. Never will I find a better grocery store, with cashiers who, seriously, seemed like they wanted to be there. And it was so close to my house.

And, of course,

24. Living in the Village.

Better get back to packing. Movers show up at ridiculous o'clock tomorrow morning.

Packing continues apace:

Pretty much all of those boxes are books, too. Almost six hundred fifty volumes, after all. I try to be pretty much a minimalist when it comes to possessions, except for books. When I die, I expect to own the equivalent of a small college library, and a pair of pants.

Today was mostly a day off from moving concerns, however. JR popped out for a last hurrah, which consisted of him buying me lunch (thanks JR!) and us laughing like lunatics over ESPN2 sports. Maybe the pints of beer and all the red meat had something to do with it. Aye, it was a manly lunch.

This is also the first post on my shiny new laptop, which I will no doubt be paying duty on when I return to Canada next week. It's now essentailly Internet-ready with all OpenOffices and the Firefoxes and the Thunderbirds installed and all the horrible, hideous HP software cruft removed. All the proper voodoo against viruses and malware and so forth has been performed as well. And Vista's put safety corners on everything, so there's no danger of my cursor cutting itself on a sharp window.

Compute safely!