From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt)
Subject: When packrats move . . .
Organization: University of Oregon, Architecture
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 16:04:15 GMT

A cool draft of air enters the room, preceded by a small cloud of dust and
fine wood shavings. 

As you look towards the door, you see a couple walk in, arm-in-arm. The man
is Jason, who some of you have seen here before, newly arrived in the last
week. (It's the first time you've seen him actually use a door.) He's about
6 ft tall, 180 pounds, with a rolling gait to his walk. He's wearing a
black "Greek fisherman's" hat, a dark blue sweatshirt, and a faded pair of
jeans. 

His companion is similarly dressed. Jeans, a red sweatshirt and an old blue
quilted vest. Same type of hat, with her hair tucked up underneath. She
takes off the hat to wipe her brow, and a cascade of dark brown hair with
auburn highlights spills down all the way to mid-thigh. You wonder how it
all fit under the hat. (So does she. It isn't easy twisting it into a loose
bun that gets that mane up out of the way). She's just about five feet
tall, and moves almost silently, much like Jason does.

They also look like they just finished crawling through every attic and
basement in town. There's wood shavings stuck in Jason's beard. Their
clothes are stained and smeared with dirt, even though it's obvious that
the clothes are not very old. They're covered in dust from head to toe,
with a layer on their glasses so thick it's a wonder they can see. They
both seem to realize that about this time, and take their glasses off to
clean them with a bandanna that Jason produces from somewhere, which they
pass back and forth. They look completely exhausted, yet there is a faint
smile on their faces. They walk hand in hand to the bar, and Jason speaks.

"Hi Mike. I'd like to introduce my wife, Laurie. Our friends also call her
Pegasus. We want to propose a toast."

Pegasus speaks. She has a West coast accent, like Jason. "Hi ya Mike. How
ya doin'? I'll have an Irish Mist. The real stuff, from before Heublein
bought the label and started shipping rot-gut whiskey in its place." Mike
hauls out a squat brown bottle and wipes off a thin layer of dust. "This
what you had in mind? How would you like it?" Pegasus looks approvingly at
the label and nods. "Yep, that's it. 80 proof and the original label. I'll
have it neat, in a heated brandy snifter, thanks."

Jason pipes up with "Same for me. Good choice love."

Mike hands them the snifters, and they walk hand in hand to the chalkline
in front of the fireplace. They stand there for a while, savoring the
warmed liquor, and looking into each others eyes like a pair of newlyweds.
Soon Jason says "Shall we?" to which Pegasus replies simply "Lets."

They spin in opposite directions, and return to facing each other in a
smooth, flowing movement, like a well-practiced dance, casting the snifters
into the fireplace in mid-spin. The two glasses smash with a single sound,
and the fire flares a bit from the residue in Pegasus' glass. They laugh
and say at the same time "MOVING! BLEAHHH!" Then they fall together in a
bear hug, Jason picking Pegasus up off the ground and landing her again so
they both face the attentive regulars at "the Place", and he starts to tell
their story.

"Howdy folks. Pardon our appearance, but we've just spent the last two
months moving to a new town, new job, and in general having our lives
turned upside down. This weekend was the final shuffle of freight between
the towns, and we're exhausted".

"Now normally moving isn't that bad of an experience, even when, as it this
case, it's to a new town several hours drive away. But for us it was
complicated by the fact that we're both "packrats", and we had been in the
last place seven years. That's a lot of time for packrats to accumulate
stuff. We're also bibliophiles, with a library that exceeded 3000 volumes
the last time we bothered counting, which was over five years ago. And on
top of that I had a woodworking shop at our old place where for the last
five years I made and built custom furniture. So this is what happens when
packrats move."

"It started back in early March, when my employer of the last seven years
informed me that they were restructuring computer support at my college.
They were going to split my job into four different jobs. Which was great,
as my office was severely under-staffed. Unfortunately, none of the new
jobs that they offered me were acceptable. The people who decided how to
restructure the work load had ignored every informed suggestion from their
directors of academic and administrative computing, from the computer
advisory council, and from my user support office, and in short made a real
hash of it. So I resigned effective June 30, when my contract was due to
expire, and started the great job hunt."

"Things started to turn around in mid-July, with an interview at the
University of Oregon. Great news! :-) They called back right away and
offered me the position. Not so great news. :-( It was at a salary that was
a $2600/year pay cut from what I had been earning. We talked it over and
decided that in this economy, we would have to go for it, even though it
meant Pegasus had to look for a job for the first time since we were
married. She's still looking."

Pegasus takes over the narrative.

"The other disruption was that they wanted Jason to start as soon as
possible. That meant I would have to do most of the packing, with Jay
working down there and assisting on the weekends. Being a packrat is also
often being a procrastinator. It's hard to get yourself to throw out any of
that "useful stuff" that you've collected for that project you just know
you will find time to get to some day. Naturally, we hadn't started to pack
much of anything when the word came that we were going to move to a new
town. We had been hoping to find work locally, or to go into business for
ourselves. But we didn't have enough cash to start the self-employment
path. Now everything revolved around the move. We didn't even celebrate
Jason's birthday (August 9, 35 years), and only had a token celebration of
our 9th wedding anniversary (September 2nd). We'll celebrate both of them
for real sometime later this month."

Someone says "Nine years? They act like it's less than nine days!"

Jason says "I heard that. The trick is to treat each day as the first day
of the honeymoon. It works for us".

"To make a long story short, we had to settle for a 500 sq ft apartment
that was less than two thirds the size of the house we used to rent, not
counting my woodworking workshop (one and a half car garage) and it's attic
storage that we were giving up with no replacement in sight. All but one
large tool chest from my woodshop had to go into storage. A furniture maker
without a workshop is a sorry sight, but at least it looks like I can get
access to shop space at out Student Union, and perhaps also in the shops
that the furniture design students here use to build their designs. It's
just not the same as having your own shop though. Over two thirds of the
library is in storage as well. (Including all of our "Calahans" books too -
drat)!"

Pegasus says "Even with storing a one-car garage FULL of stuff at my
mother's, and renting a small dumpster that we filled to overflowing with
old magazine articles, papers, broken power tools and other junk, our
apartment still looks like a warehouse. There is stuff piled -everywhere-,
as high as my head, with only narrow pathways open connecting the rooms.
Last night we finally got the kitchen uncluttered enough to be usable. But
it will take months to sort everything out at best. At least ten of the
boxes are simply labeled ' To sort when we get there!'. It's stuff that was
just crammed into boxes at the end when we ran out of time."

Jason concludes "Well it's all over now but the sorting and storing away of
everything. On the plus side, the new job is great! I am now the computer
support person for the school of Architecture and Allied Arts (Fine Arts).
I have access to tons of great computer equipment, and most importantly
several Internet accessible accounts that I was able to use to find my way
here. (My former employer didn't have Internet access). My new colleagues
are a wide range of creative types, who encourage my creative efforts
enthusiastically."

"Well thanks for listening. It's been very disruptive, but I think the seas
are calming now and we can look forward to smooth sailing soon. I know we
are looking forward to making friends here and in our new town. I've even
been contacted by one Calahans visitor (Albert Goodman) who is a postdoc in
Mathematics here at the U of O. I wonder if there are any more of us in the
Eugene, Oregon USA area?"

"Well, if you'll excuse us, I think we're going to get cleaned up and go
over to Lady Sally's for a nice long soak in the grotto. Get to know each
other again and talk about whatever comes up, as it were."

Pegasus chuckles and grabs Jason from behind, saying "Only talk? We'll see
about that! Lets go soak our heads. See ya folks!" She smiles broadly and
hauls him out the door.

Hugs all around
Jason & Pegasus
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Jay B. Brandt,                 |  Internet: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU
Computer Support Specialist    |  
Architecture and Allied Arts,  |  Voice Phone: (503) 346-2094
University of Oregon,          |  
Eugene, Oregon, USA    97403   |  FAX Phone:   (503) 346-3626
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Newsgroups: alt.callahans