Businesses rely on data published by the US Postal Service to validate the addresses customers give them. The data is used to correct misspelled or mistyped addresses, update changed addresses, to locate addresses for deliveries, etc.. But, that data isn't published in real time, it's published monthly. And much of the data has a legal shelf life of many months. So, if you move to a brand new street, your address is going to be flagged as invalid by pretty much everybody who does electronic address verification, for a long time. Deliveries will be delayed, people will have to call for directions, some companies will simply refuse to accept your address, etc.. And who knows how long it will take before we show up on any of the online map apps... Good times.
And why didn't the developer start working on getting a street sign until we moved in? It's probably for the same reason we still don't have cable access despite starting the building process 9 months ago. As an interim fix, Mrs wrote our street name on a big piece of posterboard and I've got it propped up against a hay bail at the start of the road. I bet the neighbors hate it. But they have nobody but the developer to blame for that.
Also, the garbage man has skipped us for the third week in a row. Last week, we called and complained, twice, and they sent a special truck out just for us. This week, they missed us again. It's a shame the one company has a monopoly on garbage pickup.
No, no cable or internet yet. The developer is still dragging his feet about getting the easement signed over to the cable company so the cable company can lay their lines. Mrs. is about to exceed the monthly data limit on her cell phone's 'personal hotspot' feature. On the bright side, I have a nice new house-wide gigabit network all set up and waiting. It's doing a fine job getting MP3s from the NAS to my iTunes laptop, and my stereo sounds really good in the new house. Actually, everything sounds good in the new house - it has the acoustics of a hi-tech theater; you can hear everything that happens anywhere in the house perfectly clearly. Strange.
I had to re-caulk all of the crown molding on the first floor this past weekend. The dry air from the furnace is affecting the wood in the molding, as it will, and the original caulk just wasn't able to handle the change. I just cannot tolerate those ever-growing gaps between the molding and the ceiling.
We got our first mortgage bill for the new house yesterday. So this will be our first month paying two mortgages. Old house has an interested couple who are wary of committing to buying our house until they sell their current house. They're also wary of making a contingent offer for some reason. Luckily, Mrs. also got a new job yesterday, so that will lessen the financial pain considerably.
I don't remember the last move we did being such an agonizing, never-ending series of problems. This one is dragging and dragging and dragging. I long for a day when I will not have a long list of urgent house-related tasks to get through. Mrs. has a list far bigger than mine.
Bitch. Moan. Whine.
Five years after my street was built I still get calls from delivery drivers because it isn’t on their sat-nav. We’ve memorised the postcode of the next street because it’s been there 30 years.
We just got a new Internet connection and the provider traffic-shapes torrents during “peak hours” (4PM till midnight during the week and then all weekend) so the wife’s Grey’s Anatomy won’t download faster than 2Kbps! And we have a 40MB connection. I’ve resorted to Usenet which is asking for trouble. We might have to just admit defeat and move to the US.
Grey’s Anatomy won’t download faster than 2Kbps
ouch!
I’ve resorted to Usenet which is asking for trouble.
eew.
can you just buy it? :)
Actually we’re just impatient so can wait until it airs in the UK. It used to mean a long wait but things have changed. The Walking Dead airs in the US on a Sunday night and in the UK the following Friday for example. We also now get shows like Boardwalk Empire, etc. more or less at the same time is you guys.
The only show I’m bothered about at the moment personally is Dexter which is almost finished for this season but won’t be air over here until the spring as it doesn’t have a massive following. As I’m 10 episodes in I can’t stop now!
See, if I know a show will air on Sky in the UK eventually then I don’t feel bad downloading it as I’m already paying Sky a lot of money every month. For anything else then there is Netflix now – I am just about to start watching Breaking Bad on Netflix as I hear such good things about it and by an amazing chance the UK has more seasons on Netflix than the US.
So my days of torrenting are almost over anyway. And as for music, well I did used to torrent the odd album and then buy it if I liked it but now I listen to samples on Amazon, Google, etc. and that’s usually enough for me to decide if it’s worth buying. With many new albums on sale at the sweet £5 spot it’s OK.
What really bugs me though is that Amazon have some albums available on CD _cheaper_ than the MP3 download. WTF is that about? I don’t want a physical CD but it’s cheaper for me to buy one, rip it and then throw the thing in the bin. Which is just crap.
Actually we’re just impatient
ah. yeah, that can be a drag. we’ve had to resort to the odd torrent or two in order to catch up with a show before the new season started.
about to start watching Breaking Bad on Netflix as I hear such good things about it
oh yeah. very good. my favorite, right now.
i’m dreading the prospect of the final season starting before we get cable. that’s still 6 or 7 months away, but i worry about these things.
WTF is that about?
i suspect record companies allow retailers to discount CDs the way they’ve always done, but have put firm minimum prices on MP3s.