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sniffnoyWell, I have my computer back. I can't exactly say they fixed it, though, because they couldn't reproduce the problems. Hopefully that means it's actually stopped! Well, I'll keep my eye out. Anyway, here I sit in Dan's old room, with the going-away message he left on the wall... wait, why am I in Dan's old room? Perhaps I should begin at the beginning...
Sometime shortly before the 19th of July I went online and determined that yes, there is a place around here I can get my computer repaired under warranty. It's called "MicroSource" and it's far to the south. I guess I'll need to take a bus... but even the buses don't go that far south. (Indeed, though they list themselves as being in Ann Arbor, I'm pretty sure they're not technically in Ann Arbor proper. Not sure what's up with that.) OK, take a bus, walk the rest of the way... looking at the map, it looks like a far walk, but doable. Google maps suggested the 6 bus, but that seemed to stop a ways to the east... the 36 bus would get me closer, it appeared, even if it's not as far in the south direction. I intended to set out on Tuesday, the 19th of July.
I had however forgotten that the next few days were the Ann Arbor art fair and thus many streets were closed, interfering with bus schedules. OK, probably not the relevant buses, but I didn't want to deal with such anyway. So let's skip ahead to Wednesday the 27th, when I set out once again. Took the 36 bus down... well, I had intended to take it to Briarwood, which the maps show as being its southernmost point, but I guess it doesn't actually stop there? So I had to get out on the way back north and walk back south towards Briarwood, and past it to my eventual destination.
Upon crossing Briarwood I quickly encountered a problem: There was a highway in my way. US 94. Obviously this had appeared on the map, but I didn't really recognize the significance of it. The road went over it on a bridge, but there was no sidewalk, and the cars were numerous. There was an island in the middle of the bridge... I could walk across on that... but I figured I should try to find another solution first. I walked down Briarwood, in the direction of the shopping mall there, hoping to find a way across, or more information inside. ("A shopping mall right next to some wetlands," I thought, "like I'm back in New Jersey.") I certainly didn't find the former, but after a while (they don't make it easy to find a map in there) I managed to find a bathroom (which I certainly needed by that point) and an information desk[0]. Nope, no way across, the person there said, not for quite a ways, except by walking across the bridge.
So I set out to continue by trek southward -- pretty tired by this point, due to the heat, and the weight of my laptop in my backpack, though I hadn't actually walked that far -- but as soon as I got outside it started to rain. I said to hell with it, decided to try again some other day, and took a 6 bus back home.
Alright. That takes us to about a week later, i.e. last Monday, when I set out once again with my laptop in my backpack. This time I took a 6 bus to get past 94[4]. That got me as far south as Ellsworth[3]. But I still had a mile and a half to go. Thankfully the day wasn't as hot as my last attempt, but it tired me out all the same. That whole area is pretty desolate -- basically just office buildings, cars going by, and wetlands. And I mean the wetlands are pretty neat -- I saw a neat running bird that I didn't recognize -- but I wasn't there to stop and look at them. Just a trek south, with no shade, and no sidewalk, just some rocks by the side of the road (some of which I later found stuck in my shoe). I sunburned myself, too, though not very badly -- I had some sunscreen back at home but I certainly hadn't thought of it.
Oh well. I eventually made it, dropped off the computer, decided I wasn't walking that a second time, and called a cab to get home. (It was kind of a surprise to see just how short my long walk had been, distancewise, especially compared to the much greater distance of getting down to Ellsworth in the first place.) At home I found Eric Gamble, who stopped me and told me that it turns out that I never actually signed a contract for the summmer. Huh, I said, that's weird, I'll have to go down to the ICC office to resolve that. But first, I thought, I'd head to my office to get some internet access. No harm done if I wait a bit before fixing this issue...
-Harry
[0]Actually there was a bit more to finding the infomation desk than that, but I'm omitting it, because this is approaching the "I'm pretty sure you don't care" point.
[3]When checking the map previously, I had kind of forgotten, buses don't just stop at the major "bus stops", so the whole "it stops a ways east of where I want" thing was in fact not a problem after all. Though I did end up a bit east of where I wanted, because I didn't react fast enough on seeing Ellsworth.
[4]Which I ended up waiting way too long for because I didn't bother to read the bus schedule.
Sometime shortly before the 19th of July I went online and determined that yes, there is a place around here I can get my computer repaired under warranty. It's called "MicroSource" and it's far to the south. I guess I'll need to take a bus... but even the buses don't go that far south. (Indeed, though they list themselves as being in Ann Arbor, I'm pretty sure they're not technically in Ann Arbor proper. Not sure what's up with that.) OK, take a bus, walk the rest of the way... looking at the map, it looks like a far walk, but doable. Google maps suggested the 6 bus, but that seemed to stop a ways to the east... the 36 bus would get me closer, it appeared, even if it's not as far in the south direction. I intended to set out on Tuesday, the 19th of July.
I had however forgotten that the next few days were the Ann Arbor art fair and thus many streets were closed, interfering with bus schedules. OK, probably not the relevant buses, but I didn't want to deal with such anyway. So let's skip ahead to Wednesday the 27th, when I set out once again. Took the 36 bus down... well, I had intended to take it to Briarwood, which the maps show as being its southernmost point, but I guess it doesn't actually stop there? So I had to get out on the way back north and walk back south towards Briarwood, and past it to my eventual destination.
Upon crossing Briarwood I quickly encountered a problem: There was a highway in my way. US 94. Obviously this had appeared on the map, but I didn't really recognize the significance of it. The road went over it on a bridge, but there was no sidewalk, and the cars were numerous. There was an island in the middle of the bridge... I could walk across on that... but I figured I should try to find another solution first. I walked down Briarwood, in the direction of the shopping mall there, hoping to find a way across, or more information inside. ("A shopping mall right next to some wetlands," I thought, "like I'm back in New Jersey.") I certainly didn't find the former, but after a while (they don't make it easy to find a map in there) I managed to find a bathroom (which I certainly needed by that point) and an information desk[0]. Nope, no way across, the person there said, not for quite a ways, except by walking across the bridge.
So I set out to continue by trek southward -- pretty tired by this point, due to the heat, and the weight of my laptop in my backpack, though I hadn't actually walked that far -- but as soon as I got outside it started to rain. I said to hell with it, decided to try again some other day, and took a 6 bus back home.
Alright. That takes us to about a week later, i.e. last Monday, when I set out once again with my laptop in my backpack. This time I took a 6 bus to get past 94[4]. That got me as far south as Ellsworth[3]. But I still had a mile and a half to go. Thankfully the day wasn't as hot as my last attempt, but it tired me out all the same. That whole area is pretty desolate -- basically just office buildings, cars going by, and wetlands. And I mean the wetlands are pretty neat -- I saw a neat running bird that I didn't recognize -- but I wasn't there to stop and look at them. Just a trek south, with no shade, and no sidewalk, just some rocks by the side of the road (some of which I later found stuck in my shoe). I sunburned myself, too, though not very badly -- I had some sunscreen back at home but I certainly hadn't thought of it.
Oh well. I eventually made it, dropped off the computer, decided I wasn't walking that a second time, and called a cab to get home. (It was kind of a surprise to see just how short my long walk had been, distancewise, especially compared to the much greater distance of getting down to Ellsworth in the first place.) At home I found Eric Gamble, who stopped me and told me that it turns out that I never actually signed a contract for the summmer. Huh, I said, that's weird, I'll have to go down to the ICC office to resolve that. But first, I thought, I'd head to my office to get some internet access. No harm done if I wait a bit before fixing this issue...
-Harry
[0]Actually there was a bit more to finding the infomation desk than that, but I'm omitting it, because this is approaching the "I'm pretty sure you don't care" point.
[3]When checking the map previously, I had kind of forgotten, buses don't just stop at the major "bus stops", so the whole "it stops a ways east of where I want" thing was in fact not a problem after all. Though I did end up a bit east of where I wanted, because I didn't react fast enough on seeing Ellsworth.
[4]Which I ended up waiting way too long for because I didn't bother to read the bus schedule.
