Just ran across this commencement address...

Just ran across this commencement address...  It's by Tim Minchin, an Australian musician and comedian whom I'd never heard of before.  It's quite good advice, cleverly and amusingly presented.  It's well worth 10 minutes or so of your time...

Progress report...

Progress report...  Well, at least it wasn't hot yesterday :)  A sort of standing joke between Debbie and I is that we always move in the hottest, most miserable part of the year.  Not this time!  We're more likely to suffer frostbite this time than we are to sweat.  Even here in Jamul it's quite cool – 48°F as I write.

Yesterday was the first day of the “not so much fun” part of our move.  We're going through long-stored stuff, some of it dating back to the '70s.  Much of it has been stored in our long-forbearing friend's barn for the past 15 years, and the local rodent population has built the equivalent of Mexico City amongst it.  So, as you might imagine, a significant fraction of that long-stored trove is going straight into a dumpster.  A significant fraction will be given away, and a remarkably small amount (I'm guessing about 20 cubic feet) will go with us to Utah.  Makes us feel pretty stupid about storing all that stuff, but then again, I don't know how we could ever have predicted where our life would take us.

We got about halfway through our stuff at our friend's barn yesterday, which is faster than I expected that effort to go.  We'll be finished up there either late today or tomorrow sometime, and then we start on our house.  There's less stuff for us to worry about at the house, as much of what's there that we're not taking with us has already been given away, promised to someone, or the new owners are going to take it.  So I think we're actually going to be ready to start packing up the moving truck we're renting by Wednesday or Thursday this week, well ahead of my notional schedule...