Today I have to go to the DMV, the bank, and the barber, plus handle a few dozen other small tasks. Cassie will also get plenty of walkies as befits her caninity. This is our weather today:

I'll have some time this afternoon to catch up on the news.

• About this Blog (v5.0)  (2 months)
• Brews and Choos project  (1 week)
• Chicago sunrises, 2026  (4 months)
• Inner Drive Technology's computer history  (2 years)
• Logical fallacies  (6 years)
• Other people's writing  (5 years)
• Parker Braverman, 2006-2020  (5 years)
• Style sheet  (10 months)
• Where I get my corn-pone  (3 months)

I no longer own a house. This state of affairs will continue for quite a while. Since September 1998 I have owned property continuously except for 4 days in 2000 and 3 days in 2018. The flipside of this is that I no longer have a mortgage. No property, no debt; what will that do to my FICO score? I'll have to wait until mid-June to find out.

It doesn't feel like anything happened, though. We no longer sit around a table at the title company and sign documents; the attorneys do it over Zoom, and the principals just go about their business. I miss the old days.

I still love the view from my new place, though. Who knows, I might stay here for longer than I expected.

Meanwhile, out in the rest of the world:

• The pathetic, demented OAFPOTUS posted 55 times on social media within a 3-hour window Monday night, and all of it was gibberish. So why does the Republican Party still insist he's capable of doing his job?
• Nate Silver uses Math!™ to demonstrate how there is no trade-off between Democratic redistricting efforts and electing Black representatives.
• Of course, this only matters if Democrats make sure Republicans face consequences for violating the norms of democracy.
• Paul Krugman calls the attack on Iran "the apotheosis of willful ignorance."
• No, you absolute apes, Israel did not train dogs to rape people.
• James Bloodworth shows how "socialism has morphed into a racket" in Cuba.
• The United States has a long history of failing to manage pandemics.
• Chicago Public Schools plans to cut teachers (but apparently not useless administrators) to plug a $732 million deficit. It won't work, because the teachers aren't the problem.
• C# 15 has union types? Kewl.

Finally, after almost two years, the Chicago Dept of Transportation has just about finished rebuilding four bridges around Montrose Harbor. This is relevant to Cassie and me because it means a slightly shorter path from our new place to the Montrose Dog Beach. I haven't paced it out yet, but I believe the dog beach is just under 1,500 meters away. We will find out soon.

I forgot to mention, I broke down and bought a NetGear Nighthawk RS700s yesterday. Whoo boy:

My old router could only manage 250 Mbps on a good day. The difference is noticeable, especially when I watched the latest episode of "The Boys" last night. Whee!

NB: Never mind that upload speed; the building has cable, which will always have slower uploads than downloads.

With all of the move finally completed, including all the unpacking and all the little things you need to do in a vacant house before closing, I'm OK with where I wound up. The apartment is temporary, though that could wind up being a couple of years, during which time I will have to maintain more than one storage locker full of my stuff. I may miss the movie collection the most. (I can always go to the storage facility and grab a movie if I need to. The boxes are pretty well labeled.)

I do like this view, though, especially when the sun is setting behind me:

I might even take myself to a movie this evening. I haven't seen Project Hail Mary yet.

As of 4:30 pm, I'm completely moved in to my new place, and Cassie has gotten almost 2 hours of walkies today because of it. We had crystal-clear but cool weather all day, perfect for lots of walks.

I really hope I sleep well tonight.

The first bit of news I got on social media this morning was that David Walter, one of my high school music teachers died last week at the age of 89. He was without doubt the most influential teacher in my life. I last saw him at my other high school music teacher's retirement party a few years ago. Between him and Judy Moe, I learned more music performance technique and theory in high school than most music majors learn before their first year of graduate school. I am glad I got to see him recently. He will be missed.

And I now have 25 unread browser tabs open, so let me clear some of them out:

• Before the OAFPOTUS was the not-a-crook from California. Oh, the similarities!
• Josh Marshall doesn't see a "race to the bottom" on redistricting; rather, he sees the Democratic Party finally bringing a gun to the gunfight. Adam Kinzinger concurs, as does Brian Beutler: "Democrats have no choice but to embrace procedural radicalism with both arms—even if playing hardball isn’t in their nature."
• Paul Krugman tries to figure out if Europe is really in economic decline. He also shakes his fist at the grifters gaming the oil futures markets at our expense.
• Patrick Smith looks at the Spirit Airlines shutdown as does Cranky Flier.
• The Illinois legislature is advancing a new law that would regulate electric motorcycles and harmonize the patchwork of e-bike laws throughout the state.
• Halina Bennet assures us that smart girls read smut.

Finally, last week the Winnipeg Free Press published a charming history of daylight saving time in Manitoba. The province, along with Alberta, is contemplating joining Saskatchewan in a giant "prairie time zone" set at UTC-6 year-round. When the sun rises at 10am in Calgary in January, I think they might change their minds.

My headline yesterday was overly-optimistic. My car has in fact three more boxes in it, two for my new place and one for storage, plus a ginormous cooler that a friend sent to me with her kids and loaded with hard-to-find beers. That was years ago, however, and I have not found a subsequent need for such a large and heavily-armored cooler, so into storage it goes. Also, since I still own the place and it's cheaper to charge the car there than at my new place, I'm leaving it there for a few hours.

It helps that it's absolutely gorgeous outside:

Meanwhile, I still haven't read any of my open browser tabs, now numbering 23. I will get to them...tonight, maybe?

That's right: I have one load to take to storage and one load to take home, and then I will be completely moved in. Only one task remains: mounting my TV on the wall. That should happen Monday.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll have time to read the 21 open tabs on my browser. Today, I have the following tasks:

• Walk Cassie to boarding (see below for why);
• Stop at Target on the way back to find black trousers, because after moving and giving lots of clothes away to charity, I apparently no longer have black trousers;
• Put on said black trousers, along with black shirt, socks, and shoes;
• Drive to Oak Park, which could take 90 minutes, for a concert call at 6pm;
• Perform in Oak Park;
• Drive home;
• Remove said black trousers, shirt, socks, and shoes; and
• Sleep as long as possible.

Cassie has taken to staring at me from a position just off my left elbow for hours at a time, suggesting she's anxious and not yet comfortable being in the new apartment. So in respect of my neighbors, who would likely hear much complaining should I leave her alone from 4:30 to 11 or so, I will simply take her to sleep-away camp.

Before I do any of these things, however, I will now take a 20-minute nap.

I'm down to the last five boxes in my new place and the last six at my old place. One of the boxes at my old place is full of cardboard that can't be reused next time I move, so I just have to get that to the recycling tip.

I would have finished today except I have a concert tonight. And I discovered just now that I don't have any black slacks, or black jeans, or black chinos, just black running pants. But I'm standing in the back row, so no one outside the chorus should notice.

Right now I have about 10 minutes to close my eyes before heading out. Cassie has gotten 90 minutes of walks today, but she still won't leave me alone. I hope she gets used to her new reality soon. Very soon.

I'm almost done unpacking. By "almost" I mean there are only 5 boxes left to unpack and 5 boxes to remove to storage or charity. I should finish everything tomorrow.

Some of my friends will no doubt express surprise, possibly alarm, that I got all the unpacking done so quickly. But wow, do I hate living in chaos, and Cassie hates it more. After I removed all the empty boxes about an hour ago, she became visibly less anxious and is now curled up in a left-half-bagel on the couch, instead of staring at me with her nose between her paws.

Also, one of the best reasons for me moving here and not a vintage apartment in Lincoln Square for $300 a month less is yesterday's sunrise:

And the sunset, viewed from the elevator lobby down the hall, also fails to suck:

Cassie has one more walk tonight (to the 4th floor dog run!), and then I'm going to read about traffic engineering while patting her until I'm as relaxed as she is.

Instead of being surrounded by full boxes, I am now surrounded mainly by empty ones. This hasn't prevented Cassie from having several mild freak-outs, including one right in the middle of a business meeting. And now she's staring at me and nudging me, and I don't know why other than she is uncomfortable in the new place.

I have to make a couple more trips to storage and to the old house in the next two days, but right now I think I'll take Cassie to Best Buy so we can get my TV mounted ASAP. Not that I don't love having it lean against a box of books or anything...

So far, though, my kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom are done. Only a dozen or so boxes remain to be emptied, and I have found everything I expected to find after the move. At some point soon—I hope by tomorrow afternoon—I might even post something interesting again. And fix a few more bugs.

My apartment is a chaotic mess and I still haven't found my silverware. But Cassie really likes all the new smells in the neighborhood, and so far today, the weather is lovely.

Over the next 10 days I have two dress rehearsals, three performances (for two different choruses), a real estate closing, and assorted other tasks like locating my friggin' silverware, which I will resume after lunch and after I take Cassie out again.

The move was very successful as far as these things go. I only need about 5 trips back to the old place because of some extra optimism regarding the effort to pack my kitchen.

Anyway, Cassie and I are in our new place, and the Internet works. (Getting my computer set up was my #2 priority after getting all my stuff in the door.)

More tomorrow. Right now, both of us are dog tired, and only one of us is happy that way.

The movers will be here in 24 hours. I really only have my kitchen left to do, plus the 3,642 other little things that no one remembers until the movers have actually started loading the truck and one of them asks, "What do you want to do with this?"

Still, after doing this yesterday, I feel OK about it:

This one, however, hasn't packed a single box:

I had to stop by the new place at 8 am to let the painters in (two accent walls that have to be repainted white when I move out). As I waited for the elevator on my floor, I was reminded what I will like the most about the place:

OK, gotta get back to work. The more I do now, the less I will have to do tomorrow morning.

I got my library boxed up this afternoon, which took 7.3 hours including moving stuff out of the garage, making a quick trip to storage, and making a second quick trip to Staples for more boxes when it became obvious I'd run out after they closed.

Cassie spent most of the day on the porch as the temperature hovered around 18°C for the last 3 hours. It's quite pleasant. Somehow she also got over an hour of walkies today, and over 4 hours since Friday. She's still mildly anxious, because there's a lot of disruption and boxes, but so far her main couch is still there and so am I.

So, you know, quiet week coming up: finishing all packing by 5pm tomorrow so I can get to our last rehearsal of the season, then a dress rehearsal Wednesday, and performances Friday and Saturday. Oh, and I'm moving Tuesday. No stress whatsoever.

Also, Xfinity is going to move my internet connection to the new apartment sometime tomorrow. I don't know when, but I'm sure I'll notice it. So there might not be a post until Tuesday after the move. Updates as conditions warrant.

I am now waiting for my pizza to arrive, with plans to watch the latest episodes of The Boys and Margo's Got Money Troubles. And then I will read quietly and contemplate the next 37 hours of living here...

Cassie and I walked over to Inner Drive Technology World HQ 7.0 (planned) yesterday to pick up the keys and get a sniff of the space. She even saw the dog wash station, but had no idea what it was. That will change next week.

The place is almost too small, and it's pretty far from the neighborhood I would prefer to live in, but I think I'm going to like the view:

Today is packing, more packing, yet more packing, and if I have time, packing.

It's a chilly but mostly-sunny spring morning on the first day of May, despite some gray clouds lingering to the west. I have one meeting this morning before walking Cassie over to the new building to pick up the keys. Then starts the Weekend of the Box, when I do the last bits of packing. "Last bits" is doing some heavy lifting there, as that includes my library and kitchen, and several trips to the local charity and used bookstore drop-offs.

Meanwhile:

• How many times will the OAFPOTUS's war end before it, you know, ends?
• The second-highest number of members of Congress have announced their retirements, mostly from the Republican side of the aisle. Can't imagine why.
• Gas (petrol) prices have hit their highest level since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, for reasons passing understanding.
• Wouldn't it be hilarious if the Democratic National Committee sued CBS for $20 billion?
• Amtrak gently walked back a new Chicago White Sox ballpark proposed earlier to be built on the site of their 14th Street yard.

All right, time for my stand-up meeting, then a 3-kilometer walk to the new place, and I think poké for lunch...