How I Left Town

OK, in an attempt to preserve some sembelence of continuity to my description of the trip, this is a follow up to my first post on Monday where I listed what I needed to finish before leaving town.

1. I cleaned up the lab by 2 AM Tuesday morning.

2. I repaired my damaged car (the Ford Escort LX wagon, its "scort tough!") by 4 PM Tuesday afternoon. The repair consisted of two new tires on the right side of the car installed by Les Schwab. I got lucky in that it only cost about $160 for the new tires and I didn't need to replace the wheels. The car pulls a little to the left, and the tires on the left side of the car should be replaced to even everything up, but I elected to wait on this expense until getting back to Seattle. I suspect that the vehicle, though looking like its gone through hell and back, is in decent mechanical shape. Happy day!

3. The dissertation was sort of submitted by 6 PM Tuesday evening. Submitting the dissertation actually encompasses a bunch of little mundane tasks (paying old library fines, paying late submittal fee/binding fees, print two copies of dissertation, gather reading committee signatures, complete exit interviews/surveys etc) and I was pretty sure that all these tasks were complete Tuesday night. I gave the stack of stuff to submit to Tim Soper by mail Wednesday and it looks like everything got turned in OK. I think that is last of the PhD.

4. Though I made a valient attempt to pack/leave town Tuesday evening, it didn't happen. I lost my passport and didn't find it until Wednesday morning. It eventually turned up in an inside pocket of a rain jacket. I also had a hard time figuring out what to pack (as of Thursday night in Manny's place in Portland this task still isn't resolved, as I am now planning on shipping some extra stuff back to Seattle by mail). The packing was complete enough by Wednesday morning at 10 AM that Cameron and I were able to leave town after eating breakfast around 12. Though reasonable people may disagree with trip packing strategy, I decided go heavy with clothes. I brought enough clothing that I can wear clean stuff for a week before having to do laundry.