To celebrate my birthday my new state gave to me…
December 22, 2009
… five driving years… or rather, a Maryland driving license that expires on Dec 22, 2014, on which day I will turn … five years old than I am today. That means I’ve stopped aging, because infinty + 5 = infinity, right? I had to get the license today, since my Massachusetts license expired today, and I haven’t had time before, with all the moving and the living.
So my present from my new state of residence was a new license. My present from my new county, Montgomery, was the company of my daughter Maddie, since schools were closed again. The Tuesday closing seemed rather silly, since the snow stopped falling early Sunday morning. But it did set the stage for the closing tomorrow, Wednesday, which would have been the last day before winter break.
Much though I love my daughter, I wasn’t delighted to have her almost-6-yo company as well as her brother’s 3yo company on the license errand. But I set off with them and a backpack full of documents for the nearest MVA location that does Out-of-State License Exchanges.
I’ll spare you most of the details of the day. Suffice it to say that: not one, but two, proofs of MD residence are required; a letter from Verizon thanking you for your business does not serve as such proof, although a bill from the same company would (I think) serve; a bill from a plumbing company does not serve, although an agreement for ongoing service would.
As you know from the opening paragraph, mission was accomplished, and the new license obtained. The kids weren’t bad. I’d like to think that’s due to the good behavior genes they get from me, but it might have more to do with chocolate and other purchases from Trader Joe’s. So thank you, Joe, and thank you, Maryland.
More thanks to Montgomery County. The trash was collected today – a day late is understandable given the weather, and much better than no collection this week.
And yet more: the street was also plowed. In fact, when we were almost home, and about to turn into our street, we were confronted with a large digger truck, followed by a smaller truck with a plow on front, coming toward us. I decided to yield to them, even though I was going the legal way down our one-way street.
Did I celebrate my new drivers license, and my birthday, by going round the block, ignoring the No Entry sign, and returning home the wrong way along the street? (The alternative was to tell my kids that they had to spend yet more time in the car.) I’m not saying, and I’m not sure whether to invoke forgetfulness, senility, or constitutional protection against compulsory self-incrimination.
Snow in Silver Spring
December 20, 2009
If we moved south because we didn’t like Boston winters, we picked the wrong year, or we didn’t move far enough, or… Anyway, the Washington Post reports that the DC region begins to dig out after record storm.
Saturday’s storm broke all records for a December snowfall and buried the Washington area, forcing authorities to suspend public transportation, declare a state of emergency and plead with residents to stay home…
The storm began in the Gulf of Mexico and continued northeast along a track meteorologists call an “I-95 special,” growing most intense over the Washington area. New York and Boston also had heavy snowfall, but by the time the storm reached that area, its heart was over the ocean so those cities received less snow…
Some areas, particularly in Southern Maryland, experienced wind gusts up to 40 mph. The total measured snowfall at Reagan Airport at 8:58 p.m. was 16.3 inches, but it was as high as 23 inches elsewhere in the region. That would be more snow in a 24-hour period than the region typically gets in an entire winter.
Meanwhile Boston braces for a great white wave, and Universal Adam features the Snowmageddon tweets.
I took the photo yesterday morning, less than halfway through the storm. It’s part of the rather good Flickr group Sprung from Silver Spring.
Updated Resume
December 16, 2009
My online resume just got a pre-2100 update. Among the changes: I’ve moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, rather than being about to move from Boston to the Washington DC area.
If you have, or know of, an opportunity for a software product manager or analyst, please take a look.
Settling in to Silver Spring
December 11, 2009
We completed the purchase of our new house last Thursday, December 3. We moved in on Monday of this week. Since then we’ve been opening boxes, hanging pictures, getting to know our way around, etc.
The kids like the new place, and already feel at home here. Here they are running toward the nearest playground. As you can see, it looks like a castle in the woods, with a color scheme very similar to that of Max’s winter coat.
Maddie is looking forward to starting at Highland Elementary School on Monday. We went there this morning to do paperwork and to visit. Max smelled and saw the pizza that was for school lunch today, and was very upset that he couldn’t have any.
We’re in the Wheaton-Glenmont area of Silver Spring, in Montgomery County Maryland. That puts us near the Red line of the DC Metro. I think that the Metro will make a welcome change from the Boston T.
Real Estate: Buying May Be Trying
October 12, 2009
It’s time for some real estate ramblings about buying, to go with those about selling. We have found a house we like in the DC area, have made an offer on it, and are cleared to borrow the necessary.
We were surprised to find that the seller and our likely lender are one and the same organization. In hindsight, we shouldn’t be, since the place is a foreclosure, which means that the organization that made the last loan on the place now owns it.
Does the fact that the lender and the seller are the same organization make things run particularly smoothly? I’ve heard the view that it should: after all, the lender is in the lending business, and doesn’t really want to be in the property-owning business. We’re giving it a chance to increase its lending activity and reduce its property-owning distraction.
That positive answer is consistent with the assumption that different parts of the same large organization work together well. There are many terms for that assumption: optimistic; heroic; not well supported by empirical evidence.
I think that this sale will go through, but it ain’t over until the large seller signs.
Real Estate Ramblings: Pilot
September 24, 2009
Real Estate Ramblings (RER) is a new series. This is the pilot post/episode, in which the plot is set in motion, and the main characters introduced.
The plot concerns a move from Boston to Washington DC. Three of the main plot strands are: selling property in Boston; buying property in, or near, DC; and the actual move.
The family on the move provides four of the main characters:
- Pack Dog, one of the parents, who tends to hoard stuff. PD would be called Pack Rat were it not for RER’s use of Chinese astrology, whereby each character’s name includes the animal of birth year.
- Minimalist Pig, the other parent, who sees the move as an opportunity to shed ugly excess possessions.
- Lovable Lamb, the older of the two kids, and the big sister of…
- Playful Puppy, the youngest member of the family. His parents hope that he will be out of diapers before the move: PP himself isn’t making any promises.
Other key characters include the agents. Roger Johnson is helping with the purchase a house in the DC area.
Ellen Grubert and Janis Lippman are the agents for the sale of the Boston property. To be more specific, the property is a condo in Boston’s friendliest neighborhood, and here’s the condo’s page at E&J’s site.
The frame from the pilot episode shows PP marveling at what he sees as the sudden arrival of a huge and mysterious box. We’ll learn more about this box during the RER season. Stay tuned!
DC Photo Safari
September 12, 2009
Washington DC was a lot of fun over the last few days. Since I expect to be spending a lot of time in and around the capital (if not the Capitol) over the years to come, it hereby joins the elite ranks of things that have their own category on this blog.
I found DC to be a very photogenic city, even though we’re at the opposite end of the year from spring, the season in which it is reputed to be at its best. I particularly loved the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. I refer to, and loved, both the building itself and the contents.
I asked very respectfully on the way in whether photography was permitted within the museum: without flash, of course. I was told that it was permitted with flash (but with some additional and, to me, reasonable restrictions). So I snapped away happily, but without flash, which I consider to be intrusive inside museums (and in many other places).
In contrast, when I tried to take a photo of the Thurgood Marshall building, I was told that it was not allowed. I may construct a grumble later, but right now it’s time to head back to Boston.
