When we moved to this house only 4 short months ago our only option for broadband Internet was via satellite. We’re about 3.5 miles from town and cable doesn’t come out this far. We’re also roughly 21,000 feet from our telephone Central Office. Normally DSL is limited to 18,000 feet but every month or so I tried qualifying for DSL via Verizon’s web site. To my surprise about 3 weeks ago the site responded that, yes, I could get DSL!

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My wife has a pHd in engineering and is one of the smartest people I know. Her approach to solving problems never ceases to amaze me in both it’s depth of knowledge and practicality. It’s sort of a mesh of high-minded scientific principles and Larry the Cable Guy’s “Git-R-Done” methodology.

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Later today my wife and I will enjoy our tradition of dining on sushi for Thanksgiving. I hope all of you are with family or friends and are enjoying the day.

Thanksgiving is a great day to sit back and reflect, catch up with loved ones, watch football and of course plot your strategy for the Black Friday sales.

I won’t bother listing all of the things I have to be thankful for here. Just know that you are all on that list. Thank you for sharing this part of my life with me, for making me think, and for keeping me focussed on the future as much as the present.

“See” you all tomorrow.

The weather here has been so nice the last few days, I’ve been taking the opportunity to get some work done outside.

Sunday, I serviced the tractor for the winter. Changed the antifreeze, oil and filter, cleaned the fuel filter (I still smell like diesel…) and lubed everything including the loader and 3 point hitch. I hate working in the cold so the weather the last few days was perfect.

Yesterday I took some time out to take a walk through the property and started cleaning out the gutters. Hopefully I can finish that job in time for the trees to fill them back up again…

I’ve got a couple of hot projects at work that are also taking up a lot of time. So I haven’t had as much time to work on the site as I’d like. I am working on a couple of projects as well as part one of an article on credit cards. I hope to have it posted today or tomorrow.

Our house in Michigan sits empty (aside from a bed and TV I left there for my visits for work.) It is on the market and priced competitively with other properties in the area but the housing market in and around Detroit is very slow at the moment. Between the Big-3 laying off workers and salaries stagnating or falling there just isn’t a lot of demand for housing. Many people are leaving the area as well (as we have) which has had the effect of increasing the supply of real-estate on the market. To top it off, foreclosures are at double the rate of the nation as a whole so banks are dumping these homes on the market as well, at much lower than previous market value.

We’ve had several people interested, but nobody with enough money to buy the place, or even justify a showing. It’s a great property and I know it is just a matter of time before it sells, but uncertainty is something I’ve never liked. I’d also like to have the cash to put into stocks as I think we’re on the verge of a very good market for the next year or two.

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Whew…

I had thought that once we’d moved into the new house that things would calm down and I’d be able to write. I’ve really missed tending this blog, more than I’ve had time to realize in the past few weeks. Anyway, I’m back and hopefully for good. There are still some things going to that will pull me away but I should at least be able to get back on schedule.

So, first things first, an update on where we’re at. I will likely post more detailed news on many of the topics below, when I do I’ll link to them from within this entry.

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I’ve been working for the last couple of days by driving down town and borrowing a WiFi connection from a business in town (don’t worry, I got permission). Today I had a lot of interactive stuff to do so I set up a little office in the back of my truck and parked next to the town square. (A little park with swings etc.) I swear people must think I’m some sort of pervert by now…

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Well, really moving week… The movers are showing up tomorrow morning to begin packing. So I am scrambling around trying to get rid of as much stuff we don’t need as possible today.

They will be packing tomorrow and Friday then loading and heading out on Saturday. My wife flies in Friday night to help out with any final cleaning we need to do and to load up the horse trailer with stuff the movers won’t take with them. By late Monday or Tuesday we’ll be in the new house (finally!). I for one am looking forward to this chapter of my life being over with.

Look for posts here to become much more frequent starting next week. (probably the middle of the week as we’ll be unpacking etc on Mon/Tue.)

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As you know, I am moving out of state. I had an agreement with my boss to transition into another role which wouldn’t require me to be on site (theoretically anyway). We agreed that I was a good fit for the position and I transitioned my responsibilities to one of the people who worked for me.

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Some quick updates…

It was a long week last week… Spent Wednesday at the doctor’s getting a shot for the poison ivy I picked up during our house hunting trip. Thursday morning we picked up a 26 foot UHaul truck and car trailer.

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