Well, I made it to Rah-chester. I drove 2200 miles in four days, and I might have made it in three if the movers had showed up when they were supposed to. If you've never had a paid move, they're actually pretty good. Some guys showed up with a whole lot of boxes and tissue paper, and wrapped everything I own (one item at a time, not all in one giant package), including most of my drum set (!). The next day, they took the 103 boxes from my apartment out to a big moving truck, where they still reside today, under two feet of snow near Washington, DC. I made it out to Rochester by last Saturday; my stuff was not so lucky, and should be out here by the weekend. So I have no furniture. None. If I want to sit down for breakfast, I have to sit on my blue plastic recycle bin. I've tried to find a bright side to all this, but I don't think there is one...
I started at Kodak on Monday. Unfortunately, my employee ID number isn't on "the system" yet, so I don't exist. I can't get a proper ID badge, or an account at the credit union, or sign up for 401k stuff, or get a voice mail thingy, ... And on top of all that, my computer (90 MHz Pentium for those of you playing at home) refuses to be connected to the outside world. In the same way that my body might reject a new kidney, my computer rejects an ethernet card. So far, we've tried two, and left our computer guru scratching his head. I've tried to find a bright side to this as well, but I don't think there is one...
I did reestablish ties with WRUR (my station from the U or R days), and they let me do an impromptu show last night. It went well, and I think that Crap From The Past may become a weekly fixture again. "There's a lot of crap on the radio, but there's only one Crap From The Past."
Oh yeah, I should probably mention that Margaret and I got married the day after commencement. We jumped the gun for a number of reasons: (1) We had absolutely no luck finding clergy who would perform an inter-faith marriage, (2) We could completely eliminate the ceremony at our wedding and just throw a big relaxed party, (3) Margaret's mom would let her move out to Rah-chester before the wedding (in April), and most importantly, (4) We could stay in the same room at Margaret's mom's house for the Christmas holidays. Yep. So I got to check the "married" boxes in all the Kodak paperwork. Could be worse.
So change your Rolodexes and send me some warm clothes; it was 77 in Tucson two days ago, and only 4 out here. I moved to Rah-chester in the middle of winter, making me the most stupid person on the planet.
Take care, all. Brr.
(written a few days later...)
You know, it's cold out here. I mean COLD. Really !@#$%^&* COLD! But you already knew that.
So I'm settling in at Kodak. Not only do I have a cool plastic badge with my name on it, but I have an e-mail thingy that lets me type in nicknames. Now I just need to come up with nicknames that are shorter than the real e-mail addresses.
How to score big points with your co-workers without really trying: The office that I inherited was from a guy named Pat who transferred to a different department. The cube had a lot of junk left over, and I spent a few hours lugging old soda cans and bottles to the recycling bins in the building, all of which was duly noted by my coworkers. Well, yesterday I attended a meeting with some people whom I'd never met before. They introduced me as Pat's replacement, and commented on Pat's uniqueness. They said that when they made Pat, they broke the mold. To which I responded, "Yeah, and I found it in my desk."
Last night's Crap From The Past show went quite well. I discovered that some people at the last shift at Xerox were listening, so I kissed up to them and I think I got them hooked for life. I experimented with some deliberately cheesy gimmicks, like rhyming things: "You can tell that my sanity is gone/Because I'm playing Olivia Newton-John", and "You can tell that I've lost my mind/Because I'm playing music from the soundtrack of the movie Two Of A Kind." I laughed anyway. Marc (old friend from WRUR days who also works for Kodak and lives 8 houses down the block from me; weird!) and I put in about five hours with his production toys, and we cranked out about 25 new station ID's and jingles. They should be ready next week, and definitely in time for my full frontal assault on the Rochester airwaves, complete with "It's back" flyers. This is gonna be great!
Well, I hope that it's above zero where you are. You'd think that zero would be as cold as it gets; you can't have stock prices below zero, why should we have temperatures below zero? Just a thought.
Stay warm...
Ron Boogiemonster Gerber
Thursday, January 25, 1996
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