Wow...

You'd think that, as a veteran of so many moves, I'd have a better sense of how long it would take to move a certain quantity of stuff. Then again, as we usually don't hire people to help us out, maybe my skewed time sense this morning is understandable.

Loading, transporting, and unloading the heavy items from the store (filing cabinet, safe, two counters, a big display cabinet, and the mailboxes) took just under 2 hours. I have to say, I am impressed. The guys that did the job are a father-son team that's been in Pagosa for about 6 months, and they both look like the stereotypical Paul-Bunyan-like Swedes of American lore, the kind of fellows who uproot pine trees to use as toothpicks.

There's still stuff to be moved from the store, to be sure, but I think I ought to be able to deal with it in the course of the rest of the day. But to do that, I need to get a move on; I only stopped to post while waiting for FastMail to migrate my account to a new server ("This process will take between 1 and 5 minutes...," according to my login screen. Ri-i-ight!).

Cheers...

Still waiting on migration...

The movers went home and when I got to the store, the electricity was off. Love those efficient utility employees!

Galina and I loaded up the car and went home. She showered while I unloaded the car. Now she'll drop me off at the store and go take care of some business downtown.

Why am I posting? FastMail is still migrating my account.

Cheers...

Still waiting...

Sigh.

This is now twice that FastMail has left me stranded without mail. I know for a fact I've missed one job because I could not receive it to provide an estimate. I've told a second client to send a copy to a backup address.

Cheers...

Surprise! Server is down...

The last update at the FastMail status blog (maybe I should bookmark it?) was about 6-1/2 hours ago, stating that a file system check was taking longer than expected and not to expect access to accounts today.

That's twice in what? ten months?

It seems way too often to me, but I have nothing to compare it to.

There was some buzz yesterday about Google starting YABP (yet another beta program) which involves Google hosting business email under the company domain name (instead of gmail.com), and I did find an article at ZDNet on it, which I read to see if it mentioned anything about confidentiality (recall that Google data mines gmail content).

The article held no such information, but one of the comments - the first, in fact - asked all the questions that were bubbling in the back of my mind, plus some:

Now, let's look at the premise: assuming I would outsource my email, why would I outsource it to Google, of all companies? Google is a company that makes some of its living by data mining their users' email. So I should stick my company's email on there as well? Google is a company that never gets anything out of beta. Do I want my email to be running on a beta quality system? Google is a company that loves to log EVERYTHING and then keep those logs FOREVER, just waiting for the Feds to show up with a subpoena. Does my company need that kind of headache? Will Google even bother telling me if our emails are subpoenaed? Will Google follow my company's policies regarding destruction of sensitive data, or will it all be backed up somewhere? What about HIPAA, and information in that email?

I've gone the in-house (literally) route, and that's too much work; outsourcing has its problems as well. There's nothing to do in the immediate future, unless FastMail simply goes belly up.

Cheers...

Still no mail, but kicking...

A small translation has been written and sent off, via a backup email account. In passing, I found it curious that the 60-day version of Office 2003 that came on my VAIO, which was to expire today, actually had expired when I fired it up shortly after 10 pm to do the translation. I deleted the software and installed my Small Business Management Edition of the suite. Tomorrow, or thereabouts, I will test Wordfast to see whether the "new" software forces me to get another install code.

In the former-small-retail-business-owner department, the store is 90% empty, so I guess we'll have to rely upon the verbal representation of the owner's rep, made to Drew, to the effect that we can have an extra couple of days to get out. Then again, there is no choice, so there's no use getting wrapped around the axle on that account.

I was so wound up last night, I couldn't sleep, so after two hours (at about midnight), I resorted to something I don't think I've ever done before: I had a couple of belts of Stoly on an empty stomach. I went out on the verandah to look out at the night and let the liquor take effect and saw two long meteor trails within about a minute of each other. I went to sleep soon after and slept remarkably well.

Feht and I had agreed to go mushrooming again tomorrow, but he's been inundated with work and personal affairs. Despite my current level of tiredness - I am well and truly exhausted - I just might get up early tomorrow and go out for a couple of hours before the hordes of like-minded amateurs hit the mountains. There'll be plenty of time afterward to finish emptying our space.

But to do that, I'll have to go to sleep soon.

Cheers...