Gold-Plated Relocation Package

Fool's gold.

Another in the series of great disappointments that is my "don't worry, we'll take care of everything" relocation package occurred today. The corporate housing search came up empty. They have nothing available until the 29th, and that is just a 2-bedroom. I'm supposed to get a 3-bedroom on the 14th. So, it looks like we will be camping out in our house without any furniture or dishes or anything until the moving van arrives. That'll be 2 to 12 days after The Fambily arrives, but still before my furnished apartment will be ready.

I wrote to my relocation coordinator today to ask what, exactly, one is supposed to do when the plane tickets are bought and the moving van is scheduled, and then less than two weeks prior to the move, one is informed one will have nowhere to live for more than weeks upon arrival. Not that I have nowhere to live, having gotten a house and a fast close. But the theory here is that my relocation is not supposed to be dependent upon me finding the perfect house and closing on it fast.

I'm wondering what his answer will be. It was after 5pm when I got the email from the supplier telling me no apartment, so he was out for the day already.

Here's a strange thing: I seem to have lost my taste for beer. I have been able to muster very close to zero enthusiasm for beer over the last week or so. Sure, I've tried. I choked down a beer at Old Chicago with the FC boys last Wednesday, I had another two at the airport on Thursday while waiting for my 3-hours late flight, and maybe 4 at the going-away party across the street on Saturday. But I enjoyed each one of them very little. I'm beginning to think that I have something seriously wrong with me. Heck, I don't even own any beer right now. The Mrs. gave it all away while I was in FC last week.

I'm making good progress on the liquor cabinet, though.

Today, I had a meeting with a guy who used to work for me, then he kind of worked with me for the last six months or so learning what it is that I do at work. Training my replacement, as it turned out. We have weekly meetings where we discuss his career development and stuff like that. We call them one-on-ones, which we write 1:1. Anyway, since he's off doing something completely different on a new project now, and I'm off doing the same old thing but on a project in FC, there's not much call for me to work on his career development. So we decided to grab lunch and then hit the gun range.

Now, heading to the gun range from work is problematic. It's quite nearby (about 5 minutes away), but I work for one of those companies that fires you if they ever got wind that you brought a firearm or ammo onto the premesis, even if you keep it locked in your trunk and are legitimately going to the range. And I do not live in one of those states that is trying to make it illegal for an employer to do that. If anything, CA probably wants to make it illegal for an employer not to fire you if you keep a gun in the trunk.

So, not wanting to be fired, I never bring the guns to work for going to the range. Never never never. The problem here is that I am left with 3 alternatives:

1. Go home to get the guns. A 40-minute round trip which pretty much eliminates the possibility of getting in some range time during lunch.
2. Park on the public street so that I can have the guns without bringing them on to company property. Naturally enough, my company is located in one of those business districts that has no legal on-street parking anywhere near the building. It's about 2 pretty long blocks away before you can find any on-street parking.
3. Rent the guns at the range.

When I go from work with a coworker, I more often than not end up with #3. I try to think of it as a chance to shoot something different, but I always end up thinking of it as a damned waste of money. Like today, we rented a .22 and a .40S&W, and the rentals alone totaled $25. With ammo, lane rental, eyes and ears, and a target, it was over $80. A total rip. Now, if this weren't spur-of-the-moment, I would have brought eyes and ears, and that would have saved a shocking $6.

This guy had never shot before, and he's been asking me to take him for years. So I got to kind of teach him how to shoot. On his first shot, he did something I'd never seen done before. He completely missed a 2'x3' target from 7-yds with a $1200 S&W target-model .22. We brought the target back in just to make sure. Yup. Clean miss.

He improved quite a bit, and was shooting the .40S&W (an HK USP 40, my personal favorite) quite nicely by the end of the hour. Then, of course, he did what all new shooter do. He took the target home to impress his wife.

Dropped the price of the house by $23,950 today. Nobody cared. Maybe they'll start to care tomorrow.