Zero Hour is Fast Approaching.

42″ 1080p TV. Original cost, $1500 and change.

42″ 1080p TV. Current cost, $600-750.

42″ 1080p TV. Cost to ship to California? $233.

Ouch. Still, far cheaper than buying a replacement out in California, and I have little to complain about with regard to the TV. Speakers are kind of weak, but who cares about speakers on an HDTV? Seriously, you’re splurging, go the whole mile – surround sound is the only valid answer. Picture’s gorgeous, of course, and I’ve my share of crazy inputs.

Loving the UPS store here. Such a ridiculous thing to package and ship, and they went at it straight away. Was out of there in under twenty minutes.

Loving on USPS as well. Media Mail could use some major clarification – I opted not to send much of my potential ‘media’ via Media Mail, and only sent books. Problem is, I received too many different answers to my questions on Media Mail. Given that violations either come with penalties or are simply discarded (as far as I’ve heard, there is no return service on Media Mail)… Yeah, not worth risking.

Still, Parcel Post is dirt cheap. Estimated delivery times of approximately a week. Can’t argue with that, and frankly, if things are late, meh, they’re late. We’re talking cross country migration here.

Need to run the numbers and see what my final UPS packages tomorrow are going to run (two more custom packages, alas – no way around it!)… But, I think I’m in good shape to have successfully executed a cross country move for under $1k. In addition, I’ve several hundred dollars worth of tax write offs thanks to donations to charitable organizations – and I haven’t even gotten to furniture yet. Speaking of which, this sort of insanity is why you should never buy expensive furniture until you’re damned set on permanently settling somewhere.

Can’t wait to go to Ikea and buy a bunch of Klingon tables. FLOOGNAGH! GAGH! MOLTZ, JOI CHOO!

Coming back from the UPS store today, ended up behind some dude with an NRA sticker on his car. And… A ‘Darwin fish’ in a circle with a line through it. Hilarious. Couldn’t tell whether to be happy (someone concerned with gun rights) or disgusted (person who believes in fairy tales, claims divine omnipotence, but can’t come to terms with the fact that said divine omnipotence could’ve worked out the entire evolution thing).

I’m not fooling myself into thinking California doesn’t have its share of ‘differently thinking’ individuals, but damn, compared to this place…

Going to miss the scenery, to be sure. Nothing like the forests of Pennsylvania at the beginning of Summer. Kind of unhappy I didn’t have the chance to drive about the state and take some pictures, but that’s what vacations and rental cars are for.

Well.

Farewell to the black morass that is Northeastern Pennsylvania. Farewell to crappy weather, crappy humidity, crappy roads, crappy local governments. Farewell to crappy job markets.

Hello, In-n-Out.