Across the BridgePOSTED JUN 26, 2016

The ink is definitely dry on the closing documents. In fact I made my first mortgage payment this week. Finally, after a slow and leisurely process of getting the place ready to move in, I've begun the slow and leisurely process of moving in. It'll typically be one carload per week, at the times I go to do my laundry. Pfffft.

Thursday was my 4,000th day as a Florida citizen (not counting those few years when I was a kid)... It would've made a great moving day if only I'd been able to get out of the apartment lease. After five years the landlord could actually make more money by letting me out early, between my rent being lower than new tentants' and how quickly those new tenants have been replacing old ones. Nevertheless I knew what I was signing and was prepared to run it out. (And no, I don't care to pay for an empty apartment.)

So now I'll be living across the river from Fort Myers, where church and my job and so on are located. Originally I'd been set on avoiding this, thinking about how the bridges close when hurricanes are approaching (and I need to work during hurricanes), but several slow hurricane seasons have made that less of a worry. A distinct benefit is access to Interstate 75. Any interstate trip will now be several km shorter, as will trips to Port Charlotte, Tampa, Orlando, etc.

And how about DXing ? My small courtyard means I can put antennas outside and over the roofline, when in use, with a tripod (avoiding a permanent installation I'd have to fight the HOA over anyway)... and a high ceiling in my living room gives me nice indoor options too. While I'm moving closer to most of my local stations' transmitters, it won't be close enough to hinder good tuners. I'm not losing a single open TV channel, and may even gain 22 and 43, two low-power stations I'll now be farther from. There are several FM channels that may improve as well.

Tropo season is over and I expect to start work on the compilation videos soon. They will be the last videos I do from the old place.

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