originally posted june 26, 2005

Digging Out

It's been just over a month since I moved into my new home. I'm still surrounded by boxes but as time goes by I'm almost certain they'll disappear. As I drive around it's obvious that moving season is in full swing. All over the city I see U-Haul vans, overstuffed pick-up trucks, and contractors helping people move homeloads of stuff -- not to mention yard sales to sell off the surplus.

Unloading the Excess

The Highland Park Community Club is gracious enough to sponsor an annual yard sale for residents. The first Sunday of June, I was told that the sale would begin at 8 AM. My neighbors and I started moving our things out to the front yard at about 7:00; the first wave of bargain hunters started coming over as early as 7:30. When one woman leaned out of her car to ask, "Are you open yet?" I was so dumbfounded that I couldn't respond. The crowds kept coming and coming until we closed up shop at 3:00. In the 90-degree heat I sold two rugs, a dinette set, a tall torchiere lamp, and a handful of electronics including my old digital camera. All told, my $12 application fee to the HPCC got me over $100 and some precious floor space back.

Not everything sold at the yard sale. I ended up throwing away my old 5-by-3-foot table which I used as a computer desk. The table was too large to fit in my new house and was too wobbly for me to sell. My ReplayTV 5040 served me well for two years but can't record HDTV any more. It sold on eBay for a little over $100 plus shipping, which is about half what I paid for it originally. I also sold my old wireless router, a Netgear 802.11b device, for $10 plus shipping on eBay. Maybe I can even unload some of my old textbooks on new students arriving in town to start school in the fall.

Is It High-Definition Yet?

Dish Network came by one day and installed two satellite dishes on my roof. Then, in response to my neighbor's complaint that one of the dishes was very low on his side of the property line, I had the same installer come back. At that point I had some 180 channels on my TV, but only five were in high definition: TNT, Discovery, HDNet (random programming that's all in HD), HDNet Movies, and ESPN HD. Of those I only ever watch ESPN; in fact, I'm watching the Mets-Yankees game as I type this. It looks great -- almost too great: Joe Morgan and Jon Miller's elderly faces look so crusty in HDTV that it's frightening.

Meanwhile, all this equipment still won't let me see network programming in high-definition. I bought three different off-air antennas to try and receive the local network affiliates in HD. Putting aside my fear of heights for long enough to mount an antenna on the dish itself, I found that the local ABC affiliate is simply too far away for me to receive a signal. If I actually wanted to watch ABC (i.e. if they still had the rights to Monday Night Football) I would really be regretting my decision not to go with Comcast. Comcast offers ABC, CBS, Fox, WB, and PBS in high-def in Pittsburgh; NBC is easy enough for me to pick up with even an indoor antenna.

The state of HD programming is really pathetic right now. Once the novelty wears off, there's not much worth watching except to spite yourself: "Hey, college softball -- in High Definition!" Even the "HDTV Demo Channel," which usually shows an aquarium in stunning high resolution, is more compelling than most of the channels I get most of the time.

Sorry, Wrong Number

I set up a phone line at the new place so that DSL and the security system would work. I didn't give out the number widely since I still want my cell phone to be my primary contact. Nevertheless, the calls came by the dozen: first telemarketers started pitching me everything under the sun until the Do Not Call list restriction kicked in. (The government grants companies a 31-day grace period to bring their lists up to date.) Then I discovered that the phone number I have used to belong to a salvage yard. Whenever I'm at home during the business day, which isn't often, I get calls from people who need a new hubcap or rear-view mirror or some other car part. I got so many calls that just for humor value, I turned on my answering machine and replaced the outgoing message with a simple "Hi, this is Jason. Leave a message." No entertaining calls yet. I've heard the stories about people who end up relaying orders when their phone numbers resemble those of Chinese food or pizza restaurants. I don't know what I could do with requests for auto parts.

You're Coming When?

I've pretty much given up on finding a carpenter to build a closet to hide the unsightly water heater on my lower level. In the summertime, there are simply too many lucrative jobs like decks, additions, and roofs to draw contractors' interest. I've been told that if I call with such a request in the fall or winter, contractors will call me back within the hour. By contrast, I've called four reputable contractors over the last month; not one has even met me in person.

Meanwhile, my front door is still in lousy shape. I have to kick it open when the weather gets warm, it still causes too many false alarms, and the knob on it is completely useless. Home Depot sold me a door with all sorts of stipulations on the install: my house is so non-standard that the installer cited all sorts of custom work he'd need to do. Including a $75 (parts and labor) mail slot, I'm looking at over $800 for a $200 door to be bought and installed. The worst part is that Home Depot got their payment in advance, as is their policy, but I'm pretty much stuck here at their mercy while I expect an installer to call me. At least I paid by credit card, so if things go sour I can always request that my card company reverse the charges. The worst part of all this is that it'll easily take a month or more from start to finish, and then I have to paint the door myself. Looks like my initial $1,000 prediction for door replacement could very well come true considering that I don't own any painting tools.

Keep It Coming

I really like this place, imperfect that it is. Once I clear away all these boxes, it'll be a fine home. During my home search I downplayed the importance of living near a park, preferring a business district within walking distance. Highland Park has both to offer, though its business district is pretty small. Nevertheless, I recently familiarized myself with the neighborhood: I took a brief walk over to Enrico's Tazza d'Oro, grabbed a cold beverage, then walked through Highland Park on a hot 90-degree day. It's a nice routine that I could get into while the weather's warm.

It'll be a great summer. Here's hoping I can find plenty of time to get out of the house.

Back to June 2005, or to the year 2005.