Z/Web

Now it was time for the dreaded unpacking stage. At home, while packing, I’d fantasized about this stage. I pictured the joy of removing belongings from boxes and finding the perfect place to put the item in my new house with all it’s storage and space. The reality was far short of that. For one, I was exhausted. A month of non-stop stress and hassle and heavy lifting followed by a grueling and frantic trek and unloading had left little joy in the arrival. I just wanted to sleep. But there was still tons to be done. First on the agenda was telephone. I hadn’t bothered to have a land line installed and planned to use my Internet phone from Vonage instead. But hooking it up proved to be a challenge. It’s not that it’s complicated — far from it — but I had to find the correct power brick for the Vonage box. Of course all my computer cables were in one huge box, a massive tangle that would make the most fiercesome Christmas light tangle look organized. It took me over an hour to sort through and find the right adapters and get my Internet phone line going. Minutes after I did it, the phone rang — it was the DirecTV guy calling to say he’d be here in an hour. So then I had to rush and get my entertainment center assembled so he’d have a TV to test. Fortunately, he had some drilling and wiring to do, hooking up a satellite dish and wiring cable to various rooms. By the time he got there and did that, I had hooked up my AV system, surround sound speakers, my Tivos, DVD player, and more. Not wanting the nightmare of wires behind the entertainment center I’ve had in the past, this time I got smart and wired everything through a closed cabinet inside the center. I cut a hole in the back for the wires and kept the surge protectors and UPS in there. Some extra lengths of wire hang out of the back, but it’s a lot cleaner than before. I even labeled the wires so I can see what cable belongs to what device. After the satellite guy left I brought out a long Ethernet cable which I ran down the hallway from the office to the living room and hooked it up to the Tivos. Then I redid Guided Setup on the Tivos to alert them to the new zip code and cable system. This is much faster with an Internet connection than a phone line so I wanted to do it that way. By evening, the Tivos had processed all the new guide info and were recording. My mom left that afternoon, but we’d gotten a lot done, though there was still tons to be done.