We live in Fort Collins

We have arrived and we have nice weather and a great house to live in. We still do not have any idea when the moving van will come. It's a mystery!

On the road... again???

We are on our way to our new home in Fort Collins. Tonight we are staying in York, Nebraska. On the way, we stopped in for lunch at Champagne's Supper Club in West Branch, Iowa. I plan on visiting again on the RAGBRAI ride!

Now the real mystery is...
WHERE THE HELL IS OUR FURNITURE AND ALL THAT OTHER STUFF???

Cleaning Day

We cleaned up and removed a lot of junk that we did not want to take with us! Here are a few pictures of some of the empty rooms. We had some good times in this place, and we will miss this old house!

The dinning room chandelier

The computer room (finally cleaned up!)

Upstairs bedroom

Living room/dinning room entry

Living room

Moving Day!

We chose Atlas because their front man was more informative than the other van line people  we talked to.

The movers came on time and were finished in less than 5 hours!

It's all loaded on a truck and our rented house is empty!

We got a call from the mover's rep.  It appears that they may have been a little off-base in their estimate of the arrival day!  I hope Atlas and Ace Relocation Systems are not being deceptive! OK?

They say that packing up is hard to do

We're 90 % done and the movers come tomorrow morning!

The Aerial Crane Experts

If you want a real lift, try these guys!

We don't have much time, and I just have to move my old PDP11/780 VAX/VMS mainframe out of the house TODAY!

Helicopter cranes are a great way to get those heavy loads off your back!

I hope the cable does not break!

Here's a short video of the move this morning!

The Black Phantom

Schwinn Black Phantom Bicycle

Well, I sold my Schwinn Black Phantom at the garage sale. I imagined riding it to the New Belgium brewery; it would have fit right in, but it ain't gonna happen.
Other things that went: An old Harmony Classical guitar, an old audio tower and speakers, an extension ladder, an old lead melting pot. Not much else.

Toxic Waste

This morning I went to the Household Hazardous Waste Collection area.

"Good morning ! Do you have any mercury today?"

There were about 100 cars in line before the area opened, but the process went fast once it was started.

I was happy to get rid of 3 gallons of paint stripper and they were happy to take it off my hands!

Good stuff, Cheap

We put out all kinds of treasures for the local citizens to look at and perhaps purchase. The weather reports said it wouldn't rain until late in the afternoon and yet there was a downpour at 11:00 AM.

Lot of folks seem to be looking for gold jewlery and weird items we don't have! Maybe tomorrow will be better!

Tomorrow morning there is an EPA sponsored household waste drop-off at Palatine High School. Lucky for the environment I will be dropping off my 2 gallons of kerosene, a pint of kreosote, and some cans of various nasty liquids that I've accumulated over the years. I have about 300 ml of 2-Hexanone for some reason, and I will give it to these guys to dispose of it.

Garage Sale

GARAGE SALE!

Today we are getting ready for a garage sale this Friday and Saturday!

Man, garage sales are a lot of work! Remind me not to do this again! I'll be playing banjo and taking pictures tomorrow!

Milestones, continued:

Is the Midwest ever gonna dry out? Hey look, a double rainbow!

For review, our list of milestones for Jim and Jeanne's Summer of Love© as I am calling it now are below with some specific additions:

1) Find a new area to live
2) Sell our old house
3) Buy our new house
4) Rent for a while and or bum off people until we close

• i) Pack up stuff
• ii) Get rid of junk
• iii) Have a garage sale
• iv) Say goodbye to EVERYBODY!
• v) Have movers load up truck
• vi) Drive back to Fort Collins

5) Move into the new house

• i) Unpack
• ii) etc...

The status so far:
We found a place to live when we took the roadtrip in March to see what we could see.
We sold our house in record time! Thank you agent Fred Kunz!
We bought a house in record time! Thank you agent Dru Van Doren!
We are just about done packing
We got rid of lots of junk and there may be more!
We are having a garage sale on June 20-21
We are still in the process of saying our goodbyes
The movers are scheduled for June 26

You can't go home again

Unlike the Thomas Wolfe novel, sometimes you can't go home because there is no home to come home to!

Here is the house where I lived for the first 20 years of my life. It was at 0 South 610 Euclid Avenue in Villa Park, Illinois. My father built most of it in 1948. It was torn down a few years ago, and in its place...

What is it? It looks like the Frank Lloyd Wright Zombie came and hit it with an ugly stick!

I mean, it's so big, it has its own zip code!

It got more windows than Bill Gates!

And worse yet, it's in Villa Park!

Rendezvous at Isle la Cache

Innisfree

We went to the Rendezvous at the Isle la Cache in Romeoville, Ill this weekend. There was Irish music and 18th century re-enactors and lots of live shows (like the frying pan toss as shown in yesterday's entry).  The event was free and the weather was great!

What are these women doing?

Yet another mystery !

Thems the RULES!

Took the bike out to Elgin today for a total of 66 miles!

Someplace in Elgin, near this pink house

I can't seem to figure out what the attraction was, but I guess some people liked to hang out here and play music real loud!

Sweetness in Arlington Heights

This is probably the highest point in Arlington Heights. It used to be a garbage dump, but now it's a tribute to Walter Payton.

There is an asphalt path to the top of Payton's Hill and it is a good place as any to do hill training.

I did the bicycle-banjo method that I use on RAGBRAI. It's a good thing to stop at the top and play a little banjo before heading on to the next town! Just 37 days 'til RAGBRAI !

A Farewell to Arms

The M-1 CRS Robot Arm

Today I donated both of my robotic arms to the school down the street. The school (South Middle School in Arlington Heights, Illinois) has a very active industrial arts and technology program and the instructors were delighted to have these robot arms, associated controller electronics, and the most important part: The robot manual !

I will miss these arms, but I don't know what I would do with them in Colorado.

Here they are on the cart near the admin office of the school

One last look before I leave (sigh!)

Old School

As part of my training for the big bicycle trip across Iowa I need to do at least two back-to back 80 mile trips in two consecutive days. I've got only 40 more days to get in shape! Today I rode a measly 54 miles. Part of my journey took me to the town where I grew up: Villa Park, Illinois.
As I rode past the middle school that I attended some 48 years ago, it reminded me of how much fun 5th grade really was. Back then it was called Villa Middle School, but now it is named after Mr. John E. Albright.

I remember Mr. Albright back then. He was the principal of the school and he would often visit the classes and ask questions. It sort of reminded me of this guy on TV named Art Linkletter. Linkletter had a show called 'Kids say the darndest things'. He would ask these kids questions on TV and the kids always said the darndest things. I guess that's how I saw it back then when Mr. Albright asked his questions. An opportunity to say the darndest thing!
So I stopped in to visit John E. Albright Middle School and snapped a picture of Mr. Albright's portrait.

John E Albright

And then, just for comparison, I have here a picture of Art Linkletter:

Art Linkletter

Maybe they look a little bit alike?

The school let me look through some of the old yearbooks, but there were none from 1960. I found a picture of Mr. Dollinger, the Industrial Arts teacher in the 1973 yearbook. He was the only teacher that I can remember form the '73 book. Note: When he would show the class movies of classical paintings, he would put is hand in front of the lens whenever a painting of nudes appeared!

Robert Dollinger

Note: Yes, that's a cigarette in his mouth!

Drum Circle

It's my last drum circle in Palatine. Here's a weird vid of me playing the big old goblet drum that I built in 1995. See A Circle of Drums for details.

Even more signs

Here's what we have...
Looks like we will be moving to Colorado around June 26th. We have to pack up, have a garage sale, and say goodbye. 

And we have a Winner!

Well, it looks like we are going to buy the contemporary house (House number 2) in a nice quiet area of Fort Collins! Hooray! We have a house!!!

We've seen a lot of homes, but we just couldn't pass up this deal. I will spare you the details other than to say we will be moving into a relatively new, clean, beautiful modern style home by the end of June. We truly love this home.

But we loved the hippie house as well !

So, why didn't we choose the hippie house?
Well just like a hippie, the house was shaggy and smelly ! No, just kidding! But there were a number of factors that led to this decision. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. It was an older home. We have always lived in older homes. Why not try something different?
2. We couldn't move in quickly. The present occupants would have to move out. While it's not clear how long it would delay our move, it would be better to close on an empty house.
3. There was some work to be done before we could move in. This would further delay our move.
4. The cost of the upgrades would make the original purchase price less attractive.
5. We are tired of having to redecorate. Maybe ten years ago we would jump at the chance to have this hippie home. We just couldn't get excited about flipping an old house at this point of our lives.
6. All that weird stuff in the plant room takes a lot of time to maintain. And there's that big lawn to cut!
7. There's this big electrical distribution thing right down the street (see picture below). The damn thing probably causes cancer or something.
8. We would be miles from drugstores, hospitals, Dairy Queens, etc.
9. Fire and emergency services would be miles away from us
10. We could be eaten by a bear or something

I guess I could have figured out how to tap some free electrons from this thing!

The Effects of hurricane Katrina in Iowa

Today we drove from Fort Collins to Chicago in one day!

If you are traveling along I-80 through Iowa, stop in and have some authentic Cajun food at Champagne's Supper Club in West Branch, Iowa.
Bob, Carol, and Von were displaced by hurricane Katrina (I didn't ask how they got to Iowa) and started a Cajun restaurant in West Branch that is out of this world!

On the path again - no house hunt today!

Here in Colorado I have some time to bike around on the paths that run all over Fort Collins.

There is this great path that runs North & South through the center of town. It's a 10 foot wide cement bikeway and it is just great!

That's true. All the bikers have a smile!

Oh No! There's a hill ahead! Better put it in low gear!

Good for you! You made it!

Fort Collins is a great place to practice for RAGBRAI. You can bike to any of the small breweries and get a taste of FREE BEER !!

Or is it house number two?

The Contemporary Pad

Beautiful main floor master 2-story located on quiet cul-de-sac just 1 block from a park. 3 additional bedrooms upstairs, lots of hardwood floors, upgraded tile counters and backsplash, gas fireplace in family room, sprinkler system. Yard backs to neighborhood open space

Back of house

View of the foothills from the upstairs bedroom.

View from family room

Family room view. Audio and video components are included! (The kid in the picture is NOT included!)

What's it gonna be? Here is House #1

It looks like we have boiled it down to two possible houses in Fort Collins:
We've been calling this one the 'Hippie House' because it has very many little areas where you could easily veg-out. Groovy is another word that describes it. What kind of house has a waterfall in one of the rooms?
It has lots of well maintained houseplants all over the place! ... and taxidermy!
Stone lined walkways with a huge lot, and many, many unidentified plants and animals wherever you look!

Slow down!

Today we are going to take it easy. We are thinking of crashing a party tonight, so we may report on it later...
Oh wait, there are these cool old cars outside our hotel. I liked this one especially: