The End of the Journey

One does not typically start a blog with "end of a journey", nor with pictures of packing, but unfortunately for the last few days I was in the middle of studying for an exam, packing up things for a moving truck, and getting ready to say goodbye to my home in Boston. Given the circumstances...

You see, today is my last day after almost a short 20 months in Boston. Tomorrow we will start driving across the US, and in two weeks, arrive in Los Altos, California, our new home! The local Mailboxes & Etc. pick-up person came yesterday. As usual, I started packing too late... it turned into a mad-dash at the end to box up everything and make it fit. Surprisingly, almost all the clothes I own fit into one box! (a few jackets were left out and used to wrap up bulky items like my favorite copper frying pan and an enamel-coated Le Creuset dutch oven).

Man was it costly to ship cross-country! 16 boxes came out to be approximately $1100 (with a 10% discount).... if you plot out the cost-per-box vs. weight, it comes out to be approximately:

Cost = $10 + $1.80/pound, R-square correlation ~ 0.97.

There was some leveling off at the top: my speaker stands, which weighed about 74 pounds, seemed to have been cheap. On the other hand, my bicycle, which was professionally boxed up by Landry's Bike's (the big box in the foreground), was only 20 lbs and costed $120! Bulk, what can I say. It's also amazing what came out to be "the critical items to move first": CDs, DVDs, my stereo, clothes, my favorite cooking utensils... all the essentials of being a graduate student! :)

By the evening, our living room looked like:














All empty :(
(Yes, there is still stuff, but the rest is for Karen since she will still be living here...)

The rest goes into the car. It's amazing how many people suggested, "Why don't you rent a U-Haul?", or "Why don't you tow a U-Haul cargo hitch?" Have they tried spending a 2-week VACATION visiting several national parks in a UHaul? Oh, by the way, we need to move our car too.








So this is our plan of attack. Since we took the Southern route driving from California to Boston in 2005, now we're taking the somewhat-Northern route back. We have never been to Omaha, South Dakota, Yellowstone, etc. before, so we're very excited!

Alas, thus ends my 20-month journey in Boston. Karen and I both agree that we have grown to really like it in many ways ("if you weren't going back to school..."). There are just elements that are so unique compared to the San Francisco Bay Area, and now I understand why people say "the west coast is just so superficial." It's not meant to say that people there are superficial or fake... no, but rather, the buildings, culture, environment just does not have that well-worn in, 400-year old, sort of feel. The west coast still seems very new, very "just planted 10 years ago." It has all the great amenities and conveniences... but ah, let's not compare.

So now, let's begin the new journey. Tomorrow we close up shop, and drive to our first stop: The Berkshires!

Good night,
Keith