Don't drive in the HOV lane if you're a single

I was doing my regular commute today towards Miami and on my route, I-95 has an High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane. The lane really doesn't serve a purpose from the look of things, its just a restricted lane that cars with two or more people can use to try and get ahead of the rest of us poor souls who drive to work alone. The times that the HOV lane are active aren't that bad, after 6pm on the way home, it opens up to everyone so that means I can hit the gas and zoom on ahead of all the dunder heads that are in the slower lanes.

But anyway............ I was driving down I-95 this morning and there were a ton of cops sitting in the breakdown lane thats just to the left of the HOV lane. Actually there was just 1 cop but by the time I lost sight of him, he pulled over two different people for trying to cheat traffic by driving in the HOV lane. I don't think its worth getting the ticket although I don't know how much it costs but I know it should be more than a tank of gas or something. I'd much rather wait it out and just mosey along in the regular lanes, besides after the Highway 836 junction, everything is fine on I-95 and being patient means no ticket, no spot on my driving record, no higher insurance costs, and no loss of time because I was pulled over. You can cheat sometimes but eventually you will get caught, the state cops down here have quotas to fill haha

My dying iPod

This morning as I was driving to work I was using my iPod to listen to some music because I was getting sick of the same 10 songs that I have been hearing on the various South Florida radio stations. A curioius thing happened as the music was playing, it just stopped in the middle and played another song. For a CD player thats probably normal but not for a hard drive based MP3 player. I thought this was a fluke so I tried another song, something of more recent vintage since I have a lot of songs going back to around 1996 when I first started my vast collection. To my surprise, that song didn't work either so I reset my iPod but that didn't seem to do anything to alleviate the problem.

I think that I might need to get a new MP3 player for Xmas or something or until this one totally gives out. I think it still kinda sorta works but its not at 100%. The big hassle will be buying all the extra little things that I need for an MP3 player to work in my car like the FM broadcaster and a new car charger. If it comes out and gets some really good reviews, maybe I'll get the new Microsoft Zune player which looks pretty sweet and is basically a souped up version of the Toshiba Gigabeat S player that has been getting some pretty good reviews of late. I can't really complain though, my iPod has served me well these past 2-3 years. Maybe I can still use it as an external hard drive if it totally dies as an MP3 player :)

Construction is everywhere!

Working in downtown Miami is certainly interesting. I mean the city hasn't impressed me in any significant way and the traffic getting in and out of here is pretty terrible. One thing that I think is going to add to it in the future is all the construction thats going on right now. If you just look at the sky line of Miami, you're going to see at least 30 cranes at a minimum with high rises coming up everywhere. I certainly hope that they are going add a lot more parking so that rates finally start to come down. Paying the amount of money I am right now for the nasty garage I park in is total crap. To do all this construction many roads are closed in downtown or just all messed up because of all the heavy crap being brought in. There were 3 large parking lots or so I'm told that was right next to the office that have since been converted into construction sites for high rise buildings. Hmm the slight problem with that was that they never replaced the parking spaces that those building sites took so parking right now is at a premium. I give it at least another 5 years until construction in this town is done and by that time it will have gotten even more congested :( BAH, HUMBUG!!

Chaos in Pembroke Pines

This weekend I was in Pembroke Pines picking up a network adapter for my computer and there was a huge thunder storm that rolled through just as I finished my purchase. My wife and I ran out in the rain to my car and proceeded to go home. Here's where all the utter chaos takes place. One of the major intersections had nothing but flashing red lights. Most places there would be some semblance of order with people just taking turns going through the intersection or there might be a cop directing traffic or something. At this intersection it was nothing but pure chaos. Everyone was trying to get through the intersection at once. I was surprised that no one got into an accident trying to get through. I used a bunch of cars next to me as a shield so just in case some fool came running through the intersection they would hit them first and not me. All in all, my fancy New England driving skills got me through that mess relatively quickly. Needless to say, I'm not going to attempt to take that route to work or home any time soon unless I have to.

Networking Trouble

I set up my computer in my room at my sister in laws place but there's just one problem. I have a desktop computer and normally its hooked up to my wireless router using an ethernet cable. Before I left I bought a wireless USB adapter so my desktop would connect from a friend at work but I didn't know how good it was since I bought it my last day in Tampa. I thought that a wireless usb adapter is a wireless usb adapter really, they should all work the same right? WRONG!!

I used it for about a week and the network connection was terrible! During the course of the week I updated my sister in laws network to a 54G wireless network with my router thinking that might help things but it didn't. I was only getting around 1MB per second and I was barely 100 feet away from the router. On top of that my network connection died if the adapter got over heated and then I would have to reboot my PC just to get my network connection back.

I tested the wireless USB adapter that I use with my Tivo and that one worked great! So this weekend I decided to get another one just like it from the store. Luckily it was on sale at the store and it was even an upgraded model. I'm actually using it right now and its been working great and I have an even better connection with this one than with the one hooked up to my Tivo. Time to download Windows Vista RC1 without worrying that my network connection is gonna drop :)

Commuting to Miami

My new daily commute to Miami so far has been pretty eventful of late. I started working at my new company on Monday and had to find a way to get to work. Unfortunately the fastest way to get to work is by taking a toll road. The toll is only about a buck so thats not too bad really. The really bad part is when I meet up with my old friend I-95. Man the traffic there is freakin terrible. It's nothing but stop and go for at least 5 or so miles. I normally have my GPS with me but I've been just winging it lately and I think I've found a good route to work. Any way that I go is going to be bogged down with traffic.

I did make one mistake though, I did go to this one road called 826 one day on my way home and boy oh boy was that a mistake. My co-workers later told me that 826 is just a parking lot no matter what time of day you go or even what day you go one. On the weekends its supposedly just as bad as if it was a week day. Needless to say I'm definately not going that way again.

My way home is pretty straight forward now. I just take good ole I-95 to I-595, to I-75 and thats it. Distance-wise its longer than my commute to work but there are no tolls on it and after you pass the Florida Turnpike entrace, its pretty smooth sailing which is what I like.

Now if only I could get monthly parking somewhere in Miami I'd be all set..........

Finally finished moving to South Florida!

It's Sunday morning and I have completed my move to South Florida. Actually I completed my move on Friday evening by driving to my sister-in-laws place but I finally have my computer up and running and thats when I determine when I'm finally moved in since its normally the last thing that I acutally put together.

My wife and I packed our cars until it could hold no more of our stuff. Luckily we had just enough room for everything that we wanted to take with us. I had the pleasure of driving with my two cats in my car. They howled for about an hour or so but then they calmed down and tried to sleep. I was having flash backs of when I moved to Tampa because that was the last time that my car was ever that full of junk. I put most of the stuff that I brought with me into storage until I move into my new townhouse that is in the process of being built.

My cats seem to be adjusting well to their temporary home. My sister-in-law has two cats of her own so they've been kind of growling and hissing at each other but its all pretty amusing to watch. There haven't been any full blown fights yet but once they get used to each other I'm sure things will eventually calm down. My cats actually sleep in my bedroom with me and they seem to enjoy it. They wake us up early but I have to wake up early anyway for work so it doesn't bother me as much as it would have if I just worked down the street or something.

Monday is definitely going to be interesting since that is when I start my new job. The type of company is very similar and I've done the job before earlier in my career so it'll be like an old shoe, good and comforting and easy to wear/do. I have a few network upgrades to do and I have to set up the Tivo here as well. There will be plenty more to post in the next few days, until then...........

Moving to South Florida, Part 1

Above is the picture of the 14' UHaul truck that my wife and I rented to start our move to South Florida. Ohh, first a little pre-text. I'm moving my butt to South Florida to take a job as a tech and my wife will return to her roots in marketing and we're going to be moving into a new townhouse that we're having built. It's definately an exciting time for us and we're going to be starting our jobs next monday.

Our saga began a few weeks ago when we both learned basically at the same time that the companies that we have been interviewing with offered us jobs practically on the same day. After we learned that we had new jobs we set out to packing which took us 3 weekends to complete of getting boxes, gathering our crap up, and putting it away. We sold a lot of our furniture as well. We still have odds and ends at home right now but they'll be tossed or donated by the end of the week.

This past labor day we had the movers start putting stuff into the truck that we rented. We decided to use a company called Purple People Movers. What took me and my wife weeks to pack, they were able to move in about an hour. I have to say I was really impressed on how fast they were able to move about 40 or so boxes, my bikes, 42" TV, exercise bike, and assorted other stuff down 3 flights of stairs and pack it all into my moving truck. There were 3 of them and my wife and I just looked on in awe at how fast they were moving stuff out of the apartment. At the end of the hour the truck was all loaded up and we were ready to make our trip.

I personally have never driven something as big as a 14' UHaul truck before. It's basically a modified Ford F-350 Super Duty truck but it handled like a beast! I had to anticipate braking way in advance because there was so much stuff crammed into it the truck took extra long to make any stops. I was also having a problem with the mirrors because I wasn't used to not being able to actually look behind me. I only had the side mirrors to use and that was interesting. They were a little loose so the wind kept pushing them in so I couldn't see what was to the sides of me. That made for some interesting driving since there are so areas in Pinellas County that require one to switch lanes constantly. All in all, I think we made pretty good time. My wife followed me in her SUV with some extra stuff that we couldn't fit and it took a little over 4 hours to make it all the way down.

After we arrived, we decided to crash at my sister in laws place for the night which was really nice considering most of the day was spent packing and driving. We got up super early in the morning to unload the truck at a storage place and that took about two hours. My wife and I had lots of her family help us out and I was glad that it didin't take too long. After unloading the truck, we actually drove BACK to Tampa in her SUV to do a last cleaning of the apartment and to begin packing up the last of our things for our final move this weekend. This next trip should be very interesting considering I'm going to be bringing my two cats with me and they will meet for the first time my sister in laws cats who we will be staying with while our place is completed.

Moving is really hard work, I'm glad I only have to move to my townhouse later on this year and then for the next few years I won't be budging unless mother nature deems Florida needs to be under water for the next few thousand years.