This started as a Mastodon post, but like many morning wandering-emotive scribes it became too long, and I didn’t feel like wholly deleting it (common), or ruthlessly reformatting for reduced character count.

The relocation process was not originally planned for anything except a single move from California to Washington. In nearly equal parts this was for a change in medical care and for family proximity.

After an unexpected economic event occurred, partially a result of Washington state’s tragedy of a medical system — somehow more broken than in California, the sum of external forces imparted a requirement to take a very nice job offer in Chicago. Events occur, the new medical care is amazing and “omgosh this long period of intense treatment is coming to a close!” And then it did not, but was paused, resumed, paused, resumed again, and again, until eventually the prognosis evolved “medication resistant”. The endocrine and neuro-endocrine systems do not fare well to being bounce-tested every 3-6 months, eventually the systems revolt in their own manners and ways and means.

In the short run, we had comprehensive relocation covered from Washington state to a temporary corporate apartment in downtown Chicago for a month, then moved to a regular apartment on the waterfront for one month (unfortunately next to an eviction-tbd tenant who fights with the police when they arrive (which was every time that I had to call 911 between the hours of 0-3am)). This forced us to move to another floor in the building, incurring additional cost and then… let’s simply say, “Thanks 1000M!”.

No Stability, No Consistency, Chronic Sleep Deprivation

The Chicago winter is somewhat boring, cold, and tedious, though often very beautiful in the ways of winter storms and one of the largest bodies of fresh water in the world. Patience endures.

I love the winter, but generally that opinion is informed by my years of living in the high mountains, owning a lifted Jeep or busted-up vintage Range Rover, of waking up early, going backcountry skiing at the local pass, or cross-country at the local resort, or perhaps simply snowshoeing with my dogs - back when I had my dogs. When the cold is useful and fun, then I love the cold. Cold with nothing to do out in the cold is mostly a pretty view, but not-so-fun.. and not fun is simply Not Fun.

Also sleep; pretty nice to have a subsistence baseline, I’m not asking for 10hr nights or even 8hrs - as I usually subsist on 6hr/n endlessly. Reduce the 7-day cycle from 6hrs to 3-4hr and sleep deprivation kicks in after about three to four consecutive days, and then shit gets real fucked real fast - the bad kind of fucked. The kind of fucked that sends one to the ER, and I don’t like being in the ER, and I’ve been to the ER too much.

Just as we moved into the quiet apartment and life was able to start stabilizing, the [~~~redacted due to confidentiality clause~~~], went and got all sideways and screwed because non-disabled people (not me) are mostly assholes to disabled people (me). Fortunately, our startup is still doing well, has its runway, has its hardware, has its colo racks, has its distributed infrastructure, but unless there’s a new standard job then it’s time to move according to economic opportunity.

The original title to this post was, Things I’ve learned during the last interstate multi-timezone relocation [§]. So, let’s continue.

Some of the Things I’ve Learned from Constant Moving

Advice: don’t do that unless you have no other options. I did not have other options.

1. Verizon is an affront to all that is decent [*]. It’s never a good deal, never, ever, ever.
2. Corporate landlords are mostly horrible, often run by faceless drones without a soul.
3. The ADA will absolutely not protect disabled people regardless of legality of circumstance.
4. If you haven’t worn it in the past two years of seasonal weather, get rid of it, donate it.
5. A terrifyingly high percentage of American families are two steps away from potentially becoming homeless, often resulting from the national “Healthcare For Profit” industry.
6. The last year of experiences were not all negatives; there were many wonderful events and memories during the same period.

• [*] Goodbye phone number for the second time, goodbye Telegram login, goodbye SMS as 2FA, hello SIP “oh SMS outgoing compatibility? no not like that.”
• [§] This was the fifth relocation addresses in a 364 day period, across three states and two timezones.