The Long Road Home

When I was growing up I put together various plastic models.  I was never big on painting them, and those awful decals were always a problem.  That meant I usually had a bunch of grey plastic planes and cars all over my room.

But always, the goal was to see if there could be parts left over.  Some models had that built in, they allowed you to have some variences by simply including parts for different versions.  Planes were famous for this. Sometimes you'd by a plane model that was named the XJ-115 Tiger, for example, butit had the parts for the XJ-115L and the XJ-115DX as well.  So there was no way to avoid the parts left over situatiuon.

So now I have moved into a much smaller place and its perfect for me... but now I have all this extra stuff.  Mostly books and things like that... but some furniture as well. Its nothing I want to throw away and I doubt its worth the trouble to try to sell it.

So am I cursed to be a packrat the rest of my life?  I consider myself a minimalist, fewer keys on my ring as possible, but I do have boxes and boxes of stuff.  Maybe because its out of sight its out of mind?  I suppose that's possible...

Mac

One of the long standing jokes in my career as a video game producer, has been the number of jobs I've had. I'm sure I can make a direct connection from the number of houses I've lived in, and my willingness to change jobs. That is one of the ideas I'm hoping to explore more as time and houses goes on.

But moving an office isn't nearly as traumatic as moving a house. At one point within SEGA I had eleven different business cards. That's a combination of promotions and the office moving. One set of cards was printed because someone higher up decided that I needed my name translated into Japanese characters and printed on the back of my card. Since several others had the same title and position, I assumed I wasn't the only guy with new cards... my mistake. It was ONLY me and to this day I have no idea why.

Also at Sega we moved from really awful offices in So. San Francisco, to big swanky building in Redwood City. I was the only IT guy at the time and when I finally got all the PC's connected and happy... I looked around, we had only 4 empty cubes. I asked the big boss how long we were planning on staying here, and the answer was: "Years". I said: "And Product Development will only hire 4 people in that time?". Product Development moved again, new set of cards printed for all, within 30 days.

Maybe if I had address labels printed for each house move, I'd feel the pain much differently.

Mac

OK, So now I am in hoouse #46. I live in the Richmond District of San Francisco.  I'm still learning the area and that takes awhile.  There is someting cool about exploring and find all the new places to eat, or buy gas or food. Also the dog gets to learn all of the new dogy smells.

So this time, since I was moving my big stuff from a storage unit, I rented a U-Haul and a couple of Pro movers.  They did great... for the most part.  They did scratch the top of my coffee table, but other than that, everything arrived in one piece.

Now the big task, arranging everything.  I have a good idea where the couch goes, and the big TV, but the now scratched coffee table seems to big for the place.  It might be a great CraigsList item soon!

I wonder if I'm not really upset at the scratch because I know that its just a fact of moving, things get dented and scratched.  Or is it that old feeling that I'm not planning on retiring here so I'm sure to be moving again with this exact same furniture.

Am I the only onr with furnature that's nice, but scratched?

Mac

The other draw back is actually more common... assuming you move as often as I do. Movers are amazing packers. They can look at a space in a box and know exactly what item goes there, even if its 5 rooms away. With the correct items, a box that is packed tightly protects the items inside from any damage.

The problem is more in the unpacking. When I open a box, I see shoes, (now I know WHICH brown box), a lamp and some stuff I don't need. So I take out the shoes and lamp, leaving the stuff I don't need right then to later unpacking. Its a correct assumption that they're safer inside the box than on the floor, while they wait to be placed somewhere in the house.

So if I never need those items, they'll stay in that box until I move again. The problem comes up WHEN I do move again. These packers don't like to use the boxes that I have so they just tape them up 1/2 full. Their new packed boxes they write "CP" on the side to indicate that these are Company Packed.

As time goes by and several moves of these 1/2 filled boxes, the number of boxes grows along with the fact that now even more obscure items are packed together. After a couple of these moves, its amazing to see the sheer number of boxes. Knowing that most are only 1/2 full is some solace but not much.

The only real solution is to unpack everything... something that I'm not looking forward to. So now, when someone asks how stuff I have I struggle with an answer. I have a one bedroom place, but enough boxes for a house but weight wise its different...

Im envious of those with just the right amount of boxes for their stuff.

Mac