(T-4) Things to do in New Jersey

We are now at T-4, only four days before we leave. And this weekend looks moderately busy with family stuff, so Sally and I are both thinking heavily about things we need to do before we head to the airport.

If you're going away overnight or for the weekend, there's probably not much to do. You perhaps set the thermostats, turn off the lights on the way out, lock the door and go. When you're leaving for an extended period like this, there is actually a bit of planning you need and some things that need attention.

Smart thermostat, May 2014

As you might surmise from my last post, I have a list for that. Which I keep in Evernote.

The first is the last minute packing - those things which you can't pack in advance, usually because you need them as part of your ordinary routine. I'd include things like any daily meds you take, charging and then packing the chargers for all your consumer electronics (more on this tangled mess in a later post), putting those shoes you wear everyday into the suitcase, your phone or tablet, etc.

Wanna stay healthy, May 2014

The next, which there is a minimal amount of this time, is ensuring any critical bills will be paid. When we went away two years ago for a month, I realized I would miss an entire billing cycle for the electric, credit cards, phones, etc. For some of them, I simply made sure that I got email notices of the bills or statements and paid them on the road using my bank's e-banking system. For a few others, I pre-scheduled an estimated payment at the right time of the month. This worked well for things like the phones, cable, etc.

This time we're away for less time, and also I never actually discontinued any of those things so they're still active:

- All the utility bills are actually setup in my e-banking bill pay section on a monthly basis, and I just adjust the amounts if needed. They'll be close enough.
- The three credit cards automatically debit my checking account each month.

I do need to make some changes to all of our phones at the last minute. We have our house phones set up to call forward to our cell phones, which works great. But we'll be out of the country, and I'm not willing to pay AT&T's exorbitant international roaming fees for every telemarketing call which comes in (despite every phone we own being on the DONOTCALL list). So I have to shut down the call forwarding, and also turn off roaming on the cell phones themselves.

A variation of the last minute packing is a thing I've rented that will give us Internet access while we're away. It's from a company called Xcom. Their deal is you reserve the thing, which is a mobile wifi hotspot(1), for your trip. They then ship it to you so it arrives two days before you leave. So obviously, I can't pack it until then.

Not much left to throw out, May 2014

Finally are all the things one normally associates with leaving the house for a time: emptying the perishables from the refrigerator, taking out the last trash drop, etc.



(1) The curious amongst you can read about hot spots here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_hotspot

 

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans