Moving has been keeping us busy. Overall things have gone well. It is never easy to move to a rural area. There are careful considerations of timing and getting the right things in the right place at the right time. I'll post a mover's dictionary for those who are looking at real estate later.

So what has gone well? ABF's u-pack moving is highly recommended. They did everything on time and as expected. We were originally told that we couldn't get a ramp in Sandy Valley. As it turned out they did the delivery and included a ramp as well. Also high on the good side is the help of several wonderful folks including the Spence Family on the packing end and Stacy on the unpacking end. It still amazes me that EVERYTHING was moved in less than a week.

Not so good but still working in the right direction includes Ground Control Satellite Internet. They shipped the equipment too early and we're having to track it down. Then it came to installation - something I asked about several times during the process - it turns out they can't find a contractor after all. They seem diligent however, and are getting it worked out. Stay tuned for a final score on Ground Control.

Finally we reach the phone companies. It is amazing how spectacularly companies can make a mess out of a simple process. SBC aka Nevada Bell has to be among the worst of phone companies. As a former customer of Qwest (US West) that is saying quite a lot as one could easily imagine it couldn't get worse. It can. A month ago I called to setup the installation. We did a dance around the various things (they wanted to sell me everything and wouldn't sell me long distance unless they could tell me about how wonderful their DSL is - nevermind it won't even come close to reaching). None the less we finally settled on May 27 as the installation date (only certain days of the week). As might be expected they failed to install the phone. Adding insult to injury the tenants of the house (nee former owners) didn't start moving their things out until Friday afternoon. So it was well into Friday evening of a three day weekend before we found that the phone wasn't working. After about 40 minutes on the phone today they determined that they changed the install date to June 3 as it was more convenient. They finally agreed to get it done June 2.

All and all that wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the cell phones. Verizon has no coverage of the town to speak of. One could suppose if you could find the right spot and celestial factors were on your side you might just be able to get some service somewhere in town. Sprint seems to be the only one that has service out there... of course Sprint doesn't work on the university campus. So there you go. It begins to be enough to make one wonder that they aren't in collusion