A trip to the US- day 2

I'm in the USA to empty the contents of our house and get through settlement, and have made a long list of tasks I need to get through. I need to interview and hire someone to do an estate sale, I need to get estimates from several international shippers and decide which one to hire, I need to have some antique dealers come look at my pieces and hopefully buy them from me, I need to sell several rooms full of old books to a used book seller, I need to sell my car, I need to get tons of stuff to Salvation Army. But first on my list was to get cable and internet installed back in my house for a month, as I needed the internet to function.

Today is the day the cable guy is scheduled to come at 11 am. I had called Comcast a few days before from Italy to set this up, they said no problem and scheduled it for the morning of my second day back in Baltimore. The cable guy arrives on time, but has trouble getting the internet to work. After fiddling with it for a long time by himself, he called some tech support people to assist him over the phone. That seemed to work, we were in business. He handed me a few papers, I signed on the dotted line, and off he went.

As soon as I returned to my desk after showing the cable guy the door, I notice my computer is disconnected from the internet. Nothing I tried worked. I'm fairly technical, but wasn't able to make any magic happen. I resorted to calling Comcast. The woman on the phone found the problem right away, my account had been blocked. That made no sense to me, as the cable technician was just there setting it up. She explained that this is common, when they send someone to work on site they often block the account. OK, whatever you say, please unblock it, I need the internet. Now. She makes whatever change she needs to do and I am in business. Thank you, internet gods- and the Comcast woman. Funny how reliant I am on the internet. Five years ago, I would have not even cared.

Today I line up 3 antique dealers to come look at my furniture, talked to 6 estate sale people and set up meetings with 2 of them, and also scheduled 3 international shippers to come do estimates. I've talked to Mike back in Venice a few times via Skype - another reason I desperately needed internet hooked up. I made arrangements with my sister Denise to come on Saturday and Sunday with a truck to take things she wanted, and also with my two daughters so they could pick things they wanted to keep also. One of them would come on Thursday and Friday, the other one on Monday.

It's completely strange being back in the house after a 12 month absence, and its a little odd to be here all alone. The thought of 5 weeks of being alone is not appealing to me at all, nor is the thought of all the work I need to do to get this big sucker emptied out. I've spent time assessing what needsto go to Salvation Army, I have a project plan worked out for everything, and Mike has emailed me a list of his personal items he wants me to be sure not to sell.

After all that, I am exhausted. Thankfully, my dear friends Steve and Lisa down the street have invited me for dinner. I know I'll eat well, and tomorrow is another day.

Oh- and before I forget to mention this, Mazda has called me to tell me they don't know what the problem is with my car, but they THINK it is something called the immobilizer chip in the key. Oh boy.