Sir Grump Munch

January 03, 2007

My Last Week in Chicago

Well, I've signed the lease on the apartment in Old Louisville and reserved my rental truck from Penske (used them before when moving from VA to Chicago, the experience was fine). I picked Penske over U-Haul (even though U-Haul claims lower deck heights for its trucks) based on the overwhelming number of terrible reviews of U-Haul on epinions.com, and the mostly-positive reviews of Penske on the same. Hopefully it will go relatively smoothly, should pick up the truck next Tuesday at 9am, load it up that morning/afternoon, drive down to Louisville on Wednesday morning, unload most of my smaller stuff by myself that afternoon/evening, hire someone to help me unload the few pieces of bigger stuff Thursday AM, and then return the truck Thursday evening in Louisville. Hopefully it will work out something like that.

Anyway, I'm trying to tie up some loose ends here in Chicago before I leave, saying goodbyes and the like. Still have to visit my Aunt Lottie once more, and hopefully my Aunt Sue (mom's sister) as well. Probably won't have time to get the engine rebuilt on the Ramblin' Man (Massimo took a long vacation to Italy, which he needed), and probably won't have time to visit my cousins the Buteras in the far northwest suburbs. I'd love to, but we'll see...

I'm having a going-away get-together Saturday at Sally's Lounge, should be pretty similar to the one I had before my RAMBLE, with mediocre jukebox music, cheap drinks, arm-wrestling and several disparate groups of friends who don't know each other. Come on out, Sally's Lounge, Western at Grace (3800 N.), from about 10pm on.

I went home to Michigan for a couple of days around Christmas, I traveled by Greyhound and naturally it was something of a nightmare in both directions; at least on the return trip they had little TVs which played "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," brilliantly appropriate subject matter and a good laugh to pass the time. It was a nice, short visit, mostly with my dad and grandparents, didn't see any friends apart from Paul Toliusis. I did spend a night with my grandparents the Coffingers, and interviewed them both about their lives for my biographical interview project, so far I have interviewed my mom, Aunt Lottie, Grandma Schnabel, Grandma Hackenberg, Grandma Coffinger, Grandpa Coffinger, and started on Grandpa Hackenberg. I'm going to try to interview my mom's sister Sue before I leave Chicago and hopefully tape my dad and finish Grandpa Hackenberg on my next visit to MI. This is an exciting and very informative project for me and will certainly be of interest and value to future generations in the various families. The little $100 digital recorder I bought makes it easy to import the stuff onto the computer (via USB) and burn it onto audio CDs, though the recording quality is somewhat poor even at close range. It's not broadcast-quality by a long shot though it should be tolerable enough to listen to by those interested.

My holiday cards were done in time for Christmas, though only a few people got them before or on Christmas, most of you will have to wait until mid-to-late January to get one in the mail. No matter, they're "Change of Address" cards more than holiday cards, and they took me the better part of a week to conceive, draw, carve (2-color linoleum block print on the front), tear paper for, print, print, type and print (Gocco on the back). It features an image of my new building in Old Louisville on the front and a synopsis of the last year on the back, it's not a folding card like most other years, just a 4x6 postcard-sized deal. I'm planning to set up a little printmaking outfit in Louisville, doing some screenprinting and more linocuts and selling them in local shops and over the Infotainment SuperHighway.

The RAMBLE updates have stopped momentarily, and those of you who follow my Flickr photos have probably noticed a dearth of new posts, it's not that I haven't been taking photos, it's just that the internet has not been working reliably, quickly (or often) in the last month, so I apologize for that.

There's more to write about but I don't feel like writing, I may revisit this in a day or two, happy New Year and thanks for reading. See you in Louisville soon!

Posted by pj at January 3, 2007 03:08 PM