Month: September 2022

Speedbumps…

Normally I would have expected the follow up to the last post to be another list of all the items we’ve managed to get accomplished since we returned from our data collecting trip. However, the powers-that-be apparently decided we needed to slow down – or at least that I did. So 3 days after landing, I tested positive for Covid for the first time. And spent the next four days capable of nothing more than lethargically laying on the couch drinking fluids and binging “Call the Midwife” {sigh}

Unfortunately, time itself didn’t stand still as well so there were still things to do. For example, we had to try to salvage something edible from the overgrown mess that used to be our vegetable garden.

Normally such a bounty would have put me over the moon but what does one do with half a dozen baseball-bat-sized cucumbers? Especially when being ravaged by the pandemic virus? Why you foist them on your husband’s co-workers of course! Frank was still negative and I was isolating so he got to play vegetable fairy and see how many people he could torment with what we had.

And I still have work to do on my course that I’m teaching this fall before we go. Nope, that didn’t happen. (Apologies in advance to the students who will not be getting my best effort on this!) I had meetings with clients, some of which I was able to pull off in between naps. And we still have to continue our preparations to move… which have now slowed to a crawl. Most of the work on our end is on hold but the buyers are moving right along and wanted to come back to the house to measure some things. So we had to continue to live like it was a show house with half our belongings hidden in places we still hadn’t completely figured out.

The most important thing in the “ready to move” category didn’t involve the house: it was my appointment with the visa processing center in Boston the week after we got back. As in one week after being hit by the Covid bus. Ugh. Unfortunately, as Rochester isn’t really the hub of the universe (shh, don’t say it too loudly as some people might be shocked to find that out!), there was no where close where I could go and submit my paperwork and do the photo and fingerprint thing. Boston seemed as logical as Long Island, the only one in NY state, and it allowed me to visit the youngest child and retrieve the dog who had been staying with them since we left. This required a six hour drive each way for a 30 minute appointment – and I have Covid. Double ugh.

But my isolation officially ended on Sunday morning so off I go, masked and ready to do not much of anything. I made it with no real trouble other than lots of rain on the boring drive and we even managed to have a lovely dinner at the Atlantic Fish Company (sans vino unfortunately, still wasn’t ready to go there.) Then a night on the air mattress and I was up and ready to go to my appointment. Which was running late because the systems were down. Of course. But everything got taken care of and I didn’t even feel too guilty because masks were required in the office so everyone was masked just in case I was still too germy.

Then I bundled the dog up and got ready to make the return trek home. Quick stop at Harvard to say goodbye and drop off the apartment keys and we were westbound. Except I forgot to actually drop off the apartment keys. And didn’t remember until about an hour into the drive when I reached for a snack in the passenger seat and the keys stabbed me in the leg. Grrrrrr. So much for the quick trip home.

Do you know how challenging it is to simply “turn around” on the Mass Pike? It took me 10 miles to get to the next exit and then another 10 miles of looping through neighborhoods to get back on. Same thing when I got close the the rest stop where we were meeting for the key handover. But they got back to their rightful owners and we only lost two hours in the process. {sigh}

So eight hours after I left Boston, I pulled into my garage to find that the buyers were still there even though they should have been long gone from their measuring spree. And I didn’t care. They have now met the dog we were trying to pretend we didn’t have – luckily Buddy didn’t try to hump them! – and I assume that we don’t even interact with them again. Regardless, everything is coming out of hiding because it’s impossible for us to live this way. Especially when there are so many things still to do.

Hopefully I’ll get at least SOME of them done now that the worst of Covid is in the rear view mirror…. I hope.

Phase 1 (Preparations): Complete

Our data gathering trip to Aberdeen is complete and we are back in the US. We had a few goals for the trip:

  • Learn more about Aberdeen and which neighborhoods/villages we think we’d like to live in;
  • Meet with colleagues at RGU and get the professional connections started; and
  • Sell our current house in Rochester.

I’m happy to say we accomplished all of them.

We walked miles all over the west end of Aberdeen and the villages to the west along the A93. We decided that Peterculter was a nice place but probably a bit too far for what we want. While we weren’t fans of Cults when we first arrived, it did grow on us. The discovery of the Deeside Way means that it’s only a 30 minute walk or 15 minute bike ride to RGU which makes the village more appealing – although it is still pretty pricey. We also wandered all over the west end from Hazelhead Park to Duthie Park and from the River Dee to Woodend Hospital. We really like the area around Mannofield Church as well as around Johnston Gardens. We investigated every 3-4 bedroom, 2 bath, garage and garden house in those areas and saw a few that would work but we know they won’t be available when we are ready to move. However, finding “the” house was not the goal; knowing where to look for a house was and we succeeded there. We also learned what money will buy. We had originally hoped to be able to pay cash and not have to carry a mortgage but that would mean that we’d need to buy something that needed a LOT of work (which is still money I suppose) and really isn’t want we want.

It was also key for me to meet with my new colleagues and dean at the University. While I had many Teams chats with most of them, we hadn’t actually met in person yet. I confess that I was just a tad nervous that I had decided to pick up and move overseas based on discussions with people in little boxes on my computer screen but I needn’t have worried. We got along famously and had some great discussions about what courses would be best for me to teach (Data Governance and Ethics? Yes Please!) and how various things work in the department. I got to tour several buildings with the promise that I will indeed get lost (as in fact we did during the tour!) and saw where my cubicle is likely to be. Yup, for the first time in my career, I’m a cubical dweller! One of the things that I am looking forward to initially in this position is not being in charge of ANYTHING! Like Frank and his “retirement”, I don’t think that will last long but it will be nice to be able to focus on teaching for a bit and worry about taking on additional responsibilities later. (Yes, depending on the responsibilities I may get an office. 😁)

And finally, we wanted to use the fortnight away to make sure the house stayed in pristine condition while it was put on the market. All vestiges of the dog had been transferred to Boston with him and it was easy to make sure that the staging stayed in place if we weren’t there. So the house was officially listed on September 2 with showings starting on the 6th after Labor Day and offers due on September 12. The cunning plan worked! We got multiple offers including one for cash, over asking price, with no contingencies. Once the lawyers do their thing, we’ll have some money to use as a basis for buying our house – probably in the spring. The economist in me wants to wait until the inflation figures drop to meet expectations so that we aren’t stuck with nominal rates that are higher than fundamentals would predict. (Okay real economists, tell me how that isn’t a thing…. 😂)

So phase 1 of the BOM (Big Overseas Move) Plan is complete. Now we move on to Phase 2: Implementation. It’s time to get the visa sorted, get the moving arranged, and start getting rid of things that aren’t going with us – which is really everything. Stay tuned!

What a week it was

It’s been a full week in Aberdeen and it has been an interesting week. We started the same way any trip across multiple time zones begins: jet lag, confusion, and time adjustment. It didn’t take long to get over that and settle into our AirBnb to try to act like we live here. We have been only moderately successful. 🙂

We are staying in a two bedroom flat in the village of Cults (pronounced koolts not like the weird brainwashing groups) on the western edge of Aberdeen. We chose it because we thought it a likely location we would be interested in buying – partly because several faculty at RGU live here and partly because it seemed to be very similar to neighborhoods we’ve lived in before. We’re trying very hard not to just relocate our current life to a new location but it’s difficult to imagine how to translate what we think we want into what we can find. For example, Frank thinks a 2-car garage is a requirement but that is at odds with my desire to live where I can bike or bus to work. We have lots to ponder.

One thing we really thought was important was to try to spend the week doing just the things that we would do if we lived here. When we come for a visit, we go places and do things because we are on vacation. So rich meals, day drinking, staying up late, and other activities that are generally bad for one’s health when done frequently for long periods are the mainstay of most trips. We wanted to not have that mindset for this trip and set out to have a quiet time staying local and doing lots of local investigation of neighborhoods.

But that didn’t happen quite the way we hoped. We made the obligatory trip to visit Frank’s family because that is something we will do when we live here. We thought it important to figure out how the drive was so we could decide if the train was better. The idea was that we’d make the 2 hour drive down in the morning and then return in the evening. But dinner with friends and Scotland’s strict drunk driving laws meant that we ended up spending the night (and drinking until 2am… {sigh}) I swear we won’t do that regularly when we live here…. really.

And once we recovered from that, it was time to try the train option and head just a little south to Dundee for dinner with friends. But the trains were a mess because of massive flash flooding that had several stations closed. So we ended up driving and Frank took one for the team and stuck to lemonade while I enjoyed as much wine as my hangover would allow.

And while we were on the road to Dundee, the queen died. Yup, another example of how this would not be a normal week. The mood was somber in town with several shops shut out of respect but otherwise nothing major. So we did get a chance to go into the town, learning how the local buses work, and wandering all over the city to places where we could possibly decide to live but probably won’t. The weather was fine after days of rain so after an afternoon of walking in the city, we bused back to our village to walk to the local pub for dinner. That’s what locals do, right? (Dinner was excellent BTW and I’m shocked that there doesn’t seem to be a restaurant upcharge on bottles of wine. Weird but welcome.)

And the topper for the weird week occurred this morning. Locals and tourist alike turned out this morning to watch the procession of the queen’s remains from Balmoral to Edinburgh. It seemed that the entire village (and then some) turned out to pay their respects or just be part of history. It was amazing to be part of it. But really, can next week be closer to something “normal”?

Here we go again!

I started this blog many years ago to chronicle our move from our long-standing home in Northern Virginia to a new adventure in Kansas City. Mostly it was meant to keep me sane but it was also helpful to share info with those who wished to keep track of our attempts at being empty nesters in a new place, far from our decades of past life.

Fast forward more than half a decade and we have moved on from out original move and are ready to do it again. I never thought of myself as “flighty” or someone who feels the need for constant change but here we are: ready to do our 3rd move in 8 years. And this one is a doozy – a transatlantic move to Aberdeen, Scotland. A kind of homecoming for Frank and a long awaited dream for me.

After the challenges of COVID and some professional changes and disappointments, we’ve decided it’s time for a different kind of move. We have been pondering a move to Scotland for nearly a year and even did a scouting expedition in February, looking to see what it might be like to retire there in a few years. Then an opportunity for a full time academic position presented itself and it was too good to pass up. We didn’t intend to move just yet but when Robert Gordon University offered me the position of Lecturer of Business Analytics in the School of Creative and Cultural Business, it was too good to pass up. The job description looks like it was written for me: teaching analytics and data governance, helping to define the future of analytics education as well as maintaining my industry and professional associations. We had some hurdles to get over in terms of timing as they wanted me to start in September and I couldn’t make that work and keep my sanity. So we worked out a January start and now it’s time to get things moving!

Frank’s big professional change is very different: he’s decided to retire. After 40+ years of working with automobiles, hoisting engines, cutting metal, wiring electronics, and other activities that take a toll on the human body, he says he is done. (Snickering is entirely appropriate BTW. Not sure how long this will last!) There’s no way that he’ll stop being a car guy but he no longer wants that to be his main activity between 9 and 5. But like lots of things about this transition, we’ll see how it unfolds.

We certainly couldn’t have done this on our own. I owe a debt of gratitude and thanks to the friends and colleagues who have have helped me figure this out. Both the handwringing zoom discussions and the wine-fueled dreaming have been incredibly beneficial to me (but maybe not to my liver!). I’ve been blessed to have had a choice of options and think that we have made the right choice – at least for now. One thing that I have learned over the last decade is that I can’t assume anything is permanent. So for those who are saddened by our departure, don’t think of it as a final farewell but instead we’re thinking of it as a secondment – we’re giving it at least 3 years and then we’ll figure out what makes sense.

But the preparations for these next 3 years are pretty intense! Unlike the past two moves, this one doesn’t involve stuffing everything in a truck and then arranging it in a different location. Instead, this is a “clean slate” move: we are getting rid of EVERYTHING and starting over. Yes, we’ll keep some personal stuff that we’ve accumulated over the last 30 years. But the furniture and flotsam and jetsam we have acquired over the decades all must go. We downsized considerably when moving from VA to KC but even that pales in comparison to this round.

So our house has been listed for sale and we are heading out to Aberdeen to scout out neighborhoods, meet with my new colleagues, and just get familiar with our new home. If this were a vacation, we’d tell the tales on the Cannon Family Travel Blog but it’s not. We intend to relax and enjoy ourselves but there is work to be done for my consulting practice, relocation arrangements, and course prep for online teaching this fall. Therefore, it seemed more appropriate to document things here – again mostly for my sanity but also to help give more detail to what may seem to be bewildering Facebook and Twitter posts for those who are interested.

If you want to follow along, we’ll be here. If not, wish us well and come visit when you can.