Thinkcorps

Here’s our story (copied from an email I sent a friend. so what? i’m lazy):

Don’t ever use U-Haul for anything but an in-town move. It’s so not worth it—seriously. I packed up a whole truck and our car, and with only the TV set left to pack, my back went crazy with these super painful spasms. So I was useless and we enlisted Patricia’s father to drive up with her (we had the truck and our car). There’s definitely a plus side to having family local. I stayed at her sister’s house and flew up to Portland instead.

Meanwhile, PK had a flat about 2 hours out of the Bay Area and sat waiting the rest of the day for someone to come help (they did). I think the next day went OK, but the next day, Patricia had to stop to rearrange the packing in the back of the car, and ended up spilling a bag on the side of road. The combination of cold weather, age, and falling out of the bag did my poor coffee maker in. The carafe hit the pavement and the plastic shattered, but since it’s an insulated model, the now broken carafe shell acted as a cushion for the glass interior, which was now rolling into highway traffic, Patricia scooting after it, trying to pick everything up and avoid causing an accident.

Plus, her dad snores really loud, pretty much precluding her getting any sleep. I, of course, was fine—though I did convince the Southwest gate agent that I was lame enough to deserve preloading with the babies and elderly. I did pull through by hiring two guys to unload the truck after it arrived. I think I overpaid (still only $140 total) but it was worth it to bring the whole ordeal to a quick and tidy end.

So, that was kind of long. Otherwise, Portland is pretty sweet. It’s a nice town, growing in ways that bother the locals, but I find their “problem” areas to be pretty comfortable. Maybe I’m getting older, maybe I’ve seen too much nastiness in the Bay Area. We rented a little 3BR in the Northwest hills, only a few blocks from Forest Park, which makes it a little remote, but we like walking, and can get all the way downtown or to Powells pretty easily. One night, on our way to a film festival showing, we walked all the way downtown while outpacing the streetcar the entire way.

Parking at its worst is SF at medium-easy. So, I’m pretty psyched. I don’t think you really give up that much, and you can buy a monster home here for pennies. Other than that, we’re just trying to settle a bit, which takes longer in the rainy cold winter, but hey, Spring is coming, right?