Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Fargo Field Report

I guess I should first explain that I'm not actually living in Fargo.  Right in the middle of Fargo is the Red River; on the west side of the river is Fargo, on the east side is Moorhead, Minnesota.  Collectively the two cities make up the Red River Valley and are generally known as the Fargo-Moorhead area.  We're living in a small town right next to Moorhead called Dilworth, MN, but to keep from having to explain this all the time I just say that I'm living in Fargo.

So far things have been pretty chill; I've been taking full advantage of the fact that we're staying at the in-laws place (built-in child care, woo-hoo!) and have been to the movies twice.  Yes, I'm living on the edge. 

When we got here we had no idea where we were going to live.  WifeRat was determined to live as close to her folks as possible, which means we ended up in an apartment about a five minute walk away from their house.  I'm mildly disappointed because I didn't move all the way to the middle of fucking nowhere to live in an apartment, but considering it's not quite 1200 sq ft (almost 50% larger than our place in DC) has two bathrooms, a heated garage, a balcony and only costs $790/month it's more than OK.  We looked at a 6BR farm house that was gi-normous and only $1100/month; but once we factored in fuel oil costs, the logistical nightmare of getting broadband internet, maintaining the place (I haven't cut grass in almost 15 years), and the fact that we have no furniture we decided on the apartment.  The farm house would have been dope, but for six months it wasn't worth the hassle.

Working remotely has been cool so far, but I've actually been working harder than usual.  I've got to keep my production up to justify my continued existence on the contract, so I now find myself attending more phone conferences and nonsense than before.  While I'm out here, I'm taking the opportunity to do some analysis on exactly what kind of effect the dumb ass policies and initiatives that come out of USDA headquarters have on the actual customers of USDA (farmers) and the field offices that they're supposed to be supporting.  My boss is in my corner, but we have a feeling that people aren't going to be happy with what I find out though.

Later,

HR

2 comments:

monkeyrotica said...

Cool. So you're like the people who live in Front Royal and, when they go on vacation, tell everyone, "We're from Washington, DC!"

Hill Rat said...

In the immortal words of Eddie Murphy, "Ha, ha, very funny motherfucker!!"