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Honestly, I don't think I've ever felt quite this alone before, in my life. The last two times I did major moves, the moves were to start college and to start grad school. When you start grad school, you're almost instantly immersed in a community of other graduate students, much as what happens when a person goes off to start college.

Here, well. I guess this is how people feel when they move by themselves to a new city for a new job. I'll have to convince myself to talk to strangers. It's hard, not having anybody to really talk to. Even harder was unpacking a lot of wonderful, delicious foodstuffs and realizing that I probably won't be cooking with them anytime soon. I'm just not that motivated to cook fancy things for myself.

So, for lack of anybody else to talk to, I blog.

And the new house. I've signed a lease through the end of May, and at this very moment I think I'll want to move on at that point. I can tell that a previous occupant was a smoker. The landlady plugged in some of those disgusting air fresheners right when I got there, but took them out again when I told her I didn't care for them. Without them, the house was stuffy. The kitchen cabinets have a faint lingering odor of nicotine, and I don't know if it's possible to get the smell out. There's too much carpeting everywhere, and I've decided that I pretty much HATE carpeting. I'm going to have to get a vacuum cleaner. Blargh. Miss Emma has already started sharpening her claws on the carpeting. It's very much the same overall type of carpet as at scrottie's house, all flat, but it's "brand-new." (I'm not so sure it's brand-new, as there's a spot where some piece of furniture has sat, but that's that. Also, if any of the windows are open, there's noise from the street. It looks to me like the previous occupants probably just lived in the place as a closed-up box, but for me, personally, I want the windows open. Only two of the windows (in the bedrooms, fortunately) have screens, so those, plus the front and back doors, are the only ones I can leave open. The backyard is a jungle of weeds and broken glass. I had to cook breakfast out there because I couldn't put in a request to start the gas stove and water heater until I signed the lease. So, no hot water or stove until Thursday, looks like.

Other than that, biking here. The contrast between major roadways and back streets is even more extreme here than in Phoenix. The back roads are wonderfully glorious and peaceful. The route to the grocery store is quite nice, up until the last quarter-mile. Then it's on a major roadway. I need to talk to more bicyclists here to find out about riding on the major roadways. I'm pretty terrified of them, although I still figure that at least Texas drivers are more attentive than Phoenix ones. A lot of the sidewalks here (when they exist) are tiny, so it's absolutely impractical to ride on them. Part of me thinks that's a good thing, but part of me still worries that drivers here aren't used to seeing bicyclists anywhere. I probably won't make it out for a ride with the one cycling group I've found until next Monday's social ride. Or maybe on Saturday. I have a lot of questions.

Trucking

Also, returned the rental truck. It's a relief to not be responsible for it anymore. I drove fewer than the total number of miles provided in the truck rental, so no additional mileage fees (1146 miles driven). It was hard to get it into the driveway at the new house. I would have liked to have backed it in, but I parked it at 3 in the morning and was tired enough that I didn't want to do anything fancy to get it parked. After that, well, let's just say I did not relish the thought of trying to re-park it. Parking giant vehicles is the worst part of driving them, and I had to park that truck too many times already in the course of trying and failing to find places to park it.

Next time, I will rent a 10-foot truck. The 16-foot truck was too large, and I'd expect at least a bit better gas mileage from a smaller truck. I'll look into pricing for Uhaul and Penske as well, just to see what the options are. The truck I rented was on a van chassis, which was also kind of terrifying.

I did manage to unload everything from the truck by myself. I am going to stick with a personal rule-of-thumb for the near future, that if I purchase anything, it should be small enough that I can lift it by myself. Things that are next on the acquisition list: 2 doors (or equivalent), one for a desk and one for a table. Another 2-drawer filing cabinet (second half of the desk). More Gorms or other similar shelving units.

So, the total cost for renting the truck was: $838.24 (base rate: $457.28 plus insurance - limited damage waiver, supplemental liability insurance, roadside safety net [I don't recommend this, I don't think, thought it was only $30], personal accident and cargo insurance, and taxes). I filled it with 109.231 gallons of gas, spending $367.28 total on fuel (that's 10.5 mpg, higher than Budget advertised, actually). So the total cost for getting me and all of my worldly belongings to Texas was $1205.52. Oh, plus that $67.12 sleep stop at the Super8 Motel in Van Horn. I did not eat out at all the entire drive over - peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches, grapefruit juice, pita chips, and a couple of avocado/cheese/tomato sandwiches held me over pretty darned well.