Wanna *be* there...

[jducoeur]

[Happy birthday to laurion!]

So my office is currently prepping to move. This is often cause for trauma, and I'm sure that for some people this one is. (Heaven knows, I don't envy the IT dept, who are pulling long hours getting ready for it.) But for me, it's an unambiguous win.

As it happens, the company is violating The Primal Law of Office Moves -- we are *not* moving closer to the CEO's house. In fact, we're currently about 2 miles from his house and are now moving to a bit of a commute. I quite respect the way the company dealt with the move (although I suppose it wasn't surprising for a company that has a math department): they apparently did an inventory of the employees and where they lived, mapped it all out, figured out the rough geographic center, and looked for a location around there.

That geographic center turns out to be more or less Network Drive -- the Sun campus in Burlington. They managed to find a sublet there that is utterly gorgeous: good location, excellent on-campus facilities (I am looking forward to exploring the "Sun Campus Amenities Center", which is the hyper-fancy cafeteria), a big sunny office, even exceptionally great-looking cube furniture. (The desks have eensy cranks that let you raise and lower the desktop!) And it's maybe four miles from my house, to boot. Kind of a sucky bicycle ride due to the hills and traffic, but I'm seriously considering getting myself a Vespa or something for it.

The only downside is, of course, that this week is a lot like the week before vacation: I'm almost counting the minutes until the move begins. This is only made worse by the current commute -- Route 62 in West Concord (a few blocks from the current office) is under Construction. Not little namby-pamby construction like you see in most places, with a little rough pavement and a few potholes. I mean a stretch of a mile or two that is randomly down to One Lane Dammit (with cops acting as traffic lights for which direction gets to move next), pavement simply missing in favor of rocks and dirt, and potholes that would do well for hiding an entire unit in the Pennsic Woods Battle. For five minutes a day, I find myself wishing I had an off-road vehicle.

Well, we're getting close. Thursday evening, we all get kicked out of the office so that IT can spend Friday ripping everything out; Saturday, the movers come; Monday, we start in the new place. And in the meantime, the place looks a bit like the last week of college, with everybody living out of the shipping crates that we're already packing in anticipation of the day...

Comments

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously considering getting myself a Vespa or something for it.

If you're serious about taking this approach, may I recommend that you take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation's Beginner RiderCourse? While I know you're an experienced driver, and probably experienced on a bicycle, there are aspects of driving a motorized two-wheeled vehicle that are just *different* from either of those two activities. You do end up taking a the course on a motorcycle, but the street strategies and a lot of the handling in terms of steering and stopping are more or less the same (and used motorcycles are cheaper and more plentiful than used scooters! Not that I'm biased...). I'd also recommend a full-face helmet and some sort of protective clothing. A lot of people seem to think that because it's "just a scooter" they don't need the same protection as a motorcycle rider, but a get-off at 35 mph is a get-off at 35 mph, no matter what you're riding -- the ground doesn't care, and will chew you up regardless.

I just want to see my friends safe. :-D

[russkay.livejournal.com]

Second the full-face helmet recommendation. I commuted briefly via motorcycle 30 years ago, and took two low-speed tumbles. The first one, well, I woke up on the ground, then in the ambulance, then in the hospital. I was wearing a cheapo $10 helmet and it took two weeks for my jaw to come back into proper alignment. First thing I did on getting back home was to go and buy a high-quality, full-face helmet. Hot, less comfortable, but incredibly more protection and peace of mind.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I have a helmet where the chinbar flips up -- you can find them listed as "modular" or "Flip-up" or "flip-face" helmets. They're not quite as protective as regular, rigid full-face helmets, but they're easier for me to get into. Mine even has an integrated sunshield -- a smoke-colored visor that flips down behind the regular visor.

[metageek.livejournal.com]

A nictitating membrane!

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I am NOT cleaning that with my tongue.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

Don't buy a Vespa. They're overpriced and they break down a lot.

I quite loved my Honda Metropolitan, and would cheerfully buy another. In Maine, at least, any bike under 50cc's does not require a motorcycle license.

I disagree with Tasha that a lot "a lot of the handling in terms of steering and stopping are more or less the same". Scooters have a very different center of gravity from a motorcycle, and more than one of my motorcycle riding friends has dumped their scooter because they expected it to behave in turns the same way their motorcycle did. I'm not saying "don't take the class" but realize that there are some significant handling differences.

Also, used motorcycles may be more plentiful, but I doubt they're cheaper. A new Honda Metro is about $2k and was, hands down, the lowest maintenance vehicle I've ever driven. My sense of used motorcycles is that their owners (and I know many) are always ... tinkering ... with them.)

nthing the full face helmet thing. My helmet (and luck) saved my life in the crash. My jacket saved me from much more serious injuries. Besides this, I would tend to ride in all weather (pretty much anything but snow). A full-face helmet would have made this much more comfortable.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

My sense of used motorcycles is that their owners (and I know many) are always ... tinkering ... with them.)


Ah, but are they doing that because they have to, or because they're tinkers (tinkerer?) by nature?

[jducoeur]

Well, in this case I'm using "Vespa" as the generic for "scooter" -- I know next to nothing about the whole thing. Useful to know that the Metro is a good machine, and that inexpensive -- that's the sort of price range that I can consider pretty seriously.

[jducoeur]

Useful food for thought; thanks. No chance that I would be riding without a good helmet -- I had a bad spill as a teenager, and have a *very* good appreciation for helmet safety as a result. (One major concussion was quite enough.) But the course is certainly worth thinking about, as well as the relative prices of the devices...

[peregrinning.livejournal.com]

Once you're settled in, care to come have lunch at the MITRE cafeteria, down the road and across the way from the SUN campus? If my office were on the correct side of the building, I could wave at you across the valley. :-)

[jducoeur]

Roight! Another thing to look forward to...

[dsrtao]

Please pity me: I'm 50% of our IT staff, and I have done 3 moves in 5 years. Remind me to tell a horror story or two at some point...

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I'd learn from those....

[jducoeur]

Wow -- sympathies. Especially as I've spent the past four months sitting next to the IT guys, I have a lot of respect for how much they have on their plate...

[dsrtao]

And nobody notices when things go right. I shall whine on my blog later.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I miss working in that building. It was fantastic.

Do they still have the fitness center? That might be useful to you.

[jducoeur]

I gather that we don't have access to the main Sun fitness center, but that they're building a separate gym in our basement...

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Interesting recent discussion about motorcycle (lack of) safety:
http://patrissimo.livejournal.com/1149095.html

Some significant stuff in the comments worth reading as well.

[jducoeur]

Significant stuff in the comments in both directions, mostly illustrating that Patri's using a somewhat over-simplified standard here. That is, his main conclusion is correct -- in the broad sense, motorcycles are much more dangerous than cars -- but it's far less clear to me that that's true in the specific case I'm looking at. (Scooter on a lowish-speed road.) More dangerous, certainly, but it's not clear that that's an overwhelming issue...