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

[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.