America's decidedly weird. Even the light switches are upside down. I keep forgetting left and right (especially when those road signs say "left lane must turn left"). What's "turn on red" (and why do people keep beeping their horns at me)? What does a flashing red light mean? How can a road be route 1 and 62? Are the Sunday papers just for keep-fit exercise? Why don't displayed prices include sales tax? Do I need a SSN and a 401k to go with my H1B and I94? Why don't you have Radio Four? What's that New Hampshire all about, huh?

But it's beautifully warm and sunny, which beats flash floods. I'm here alone, for now; the family will follow when we find somewhere nice to live, bring our container out of customs, and organize some transportation. With luck that'll happen soon enough for them to acclimatize before school starts.

Working as a Groove employee in the UK has been even harder than working for myself. I've been in the job for almost six months, but still feel reactive -- task-driven -- because I'm so isolated from the organizational context. Computer-mediated communication is good, and I'm even getting familiar with using a telephone, but these are still low-bandwidth ways to connect with people and require a reason for connection - the cost of "accidental connection" is very high. Sitting in the home office, I didn't much bump into colleagues in the corridor, the restaurant, by the water-cooler. Equally, teleconferences don't work, unless you have an agenda. I don't have an agenda, I just want to be in an environment where I could honestly put "instigator" on my business card again.

Those chance interactions are really important ways to find "what you don't know you don't know".

So, it's Monday morning, and there's a whole lot of interesting work to look forward to.