Dispatches From Boston

..well, not really Boston.

Since the last time I visited company HQ lots of interesting things have happened, notably including the purchase of the company by a much bigger company, the closing of the old office and movement of people to a different office in nearby Framingham. (Of course, the “Boston” office is also no longer HQ.)

I am somewhat disturbed to find that the new office is a stone’s throw from that freaky castle hotel where I went to Readercon a few years back. I know lots of places around here–many of them associated with the meals I had there with various authors. I would go into more detail, but it would just seem like a KLANGfest of name-dropping.

The office, by the way, is a disaster from a ‘getting work done’ perspective. Since I never have to deal with distractions in my office–unless the deer get unruly–perhaps my perspective is skewed, but it sure seems designed to prevent anyone from having time to think or concentrate.

I note for the record that I did survive the whole “get up at 4:30 AM” thing, and that even with everything going smoothly, I still barely managed to get to work here at 9AM EST. So that’s 5.5 annoying hours door-to-door. I could have driven it in 11 hours, and none of them have been annoying–a good trade I have made many times in the past. However, doing that this time would have meant more time away from my daughter, the crazy space monkey, and as Big Sappy Dad, I find that intolerable.

On the upside, I did a quick book store run tonight and found a copy of Gravity Wells, which I’ve been meaning to pick up, and which I have never seen on the shelf in any Canadian book store–including Bakka. This is very sad, considering that Gardner is Canadian (and indeed live in Waterloo, my former home). Having a copy, though, is very good, and will give me something to read myself to sleep with–and a good sleep it will be. I might even sleep in tomorrow and go to the office late. Who would know?