Completely gratuitous shot of Feenat.
As promised, I’m having a giveaway just for the Spinners this week. Why? Because we love our spinners and we don’t do nearly enough to celebrate them!
One of you lucky ducks is going to win one full pound of our luscious, buttery 100% Cormo Combed Top AND one full pound of our absolutely lovely Kid Mohair/Cormo Blend Roving. That’s enough premium spinning fibers to keep you busy for a good, long time.
Here’s the deal: Leave a comment on this thread telling me the best and worst parts of moving. Why? Because I am in hell over here people, and I want to hear stories that are worse than mine.
But there’s one more thing you have to do- tell your spinning friends about this giveaway. I don’t care how you do; email, twitter, facebook, blog, post on ravelry or tell your guild, but somehow you need to let them know that Juniper Moon Farm is giving away a spinners stash.
Entries close at midnight EST, on Sunday, October 11th, 2009. One winner will be chosen at random and the winner will be posted here. The winner has 24 hours to claim his or her (but probably her) prize. Sound good?
Good luck!
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The worst part of moving, for me, is always the halfway done point where I am absolutely sure I can not move another item. The best part is having every last item out of the old place and cleaning everything, so that you are finally done with one location, no matter what else happens with the new place.
The worst part of moving: Having to organize everything during the packing process, including having to ruthlessly edit your collection of things-you-know-you-will-never-really-need-but-are-loathe-to-throw-away-anyway.
The best part of moving: Placing everything that survived the ruthless editing process in the perfect spot at the new spot and having a lovely, shiny, brand-new place to enjoy.
When we moved from El Paso, TX to the Chicago area we rented a U-Haul truck to move us and about 35 small birds in their cages. We had to essentially tie the cages to the walls of the truck in order for them not to tip over. And since this was a seriously no-frills move for us and the birds they spent most of that time in transit clinging to the cage bars and we had to make sure that no matter how cool we felt, to keep it cool back there in the back for the birds. My husband attempted to drive straight through…um yeah…it didn’t work real well.
Despite the bumpiness of the ride and the temperature issues we didn’t lose a single bird in the move.
I NEVER want to move 35 birds in small cages ever again!
Best Part of Moving: fresh start
Worst Part of Moving: Ack! what do I do with the stuff I found at the back of the closet I forgot we had not packed yet and THE TRUCK IS FULL!
I used to live in Arlington, Virginia before I moved to Utah. I loved it! I hope you really find your niche there. Word of warning though, not all roads accept moving trucks. Keep your eyes peeled. I think the funniest/worst thing that happened to us on our move was the final parting when we finally left town. We moved ourselves, U-haul style. With enormous sighs of satisfaction we were at last all packed, on the road, and we took the most familiar way out. Yup, the wide open road for us. We got on the Washington Parkway and lo and behold, in less than five minutes, the truck came to a dead standstill! So we had to call to get towed. Yes, towing a full moving truck is no picnic. It turns out trucks are not ALLOWED on that particular parkway and so while we were waiting for the tow truck, red lights came flashing. Police mess and all. They had to set up a bunch of hazzard flares, wave all traffic on by. Blush, blush. It was so embarrassing. The police forgave us and actually gave my family a ride to the U-haul dealers to figure out what was wrong. The truck was OUT OF GAS. That gas gauge had been tampered with before the truck got to us.
Our options: reload a different truck that would become available the next day (are you kidding me?). Or drive the truck with the broken gauge. Hmmmm. We took the broken truck. Kind of sort of guessed when we needed gas as we crossed our ENTIRE NATION. I tell ya, it was a LOOOOOOOONG four days.
I hope this never happens to you.
Best wishes to the newly incorporated Juniper Moon. We’ll be sure to keep looking out for you.
CB
What a nice giveaway! Thank you!
The best part is a solid reason to pare down one’s possessions, donating to charity whatever one can live without and arriving at the new place with a lighter load. The worst part for me was saying goodbye to the home I grew up in, and knowing it’ll probably be bulldozed. Sure the place leaked heat like a sieve, the shower no longer worked, and the wallpaper in the bathroom had been peeled off by tiny child hands over the course of years, but, the memories!
My worst moving story is about my first move with the Air Force as a civillian. First of all, I didn’t know any better, so I drove out to California before I had my orders (the document that says the Government will pay for my move!) after telling the personnel office that I was headed out. Once I arrived, I was told they wouldn’t pay for my hotel, driving expenses, and to move my household items. After I had that worked out and they picked up my stuff from my parents house, I couldn’t get my stuff delivered. For some reason, no one could figure out where it was for about 2 1/2 months. Finally my boyfriend (now husband!!!
) called and was able to get someone to actually do some looking. My household items had been shipped to another base. My stuff was finally delivered about a week later. Before my stuff was actually delivered, I ended up moving apartments again because my first apartment was infested with termites – YUCK!!
One of the best things about moves for me is seeing new places and meeting new people. I know have friends all over the country!
Another happy note, I recently received my spinner’s Spring 2009 share and can’t wait to get started spinning it. It feels so luscious!! I’m already looking forward to my Fall 2009 share. Thanks for the great and fun idea of a Fiber CSA!
Well – I have moved four times in the past four years (Ohio x2, Vermont, Tennessee) and many times in my childhood as well and I think the best part of moving is the feeling after you have all your stuff moved into what was so recently a strange an unfriendly place and realize that you are home.
The worst – ugh packing, unpacking, driving multiple unhappy critters in the car (although I only have a few cats not a flock of sheep), broken furniture, waiting for furniture to arrive, etc, etc etc
Moving sucks but the possibilities of a new place are endless – there might be something amazing just waiting for you to find it.
The worst parts about moving. Well, it starts with having to keep the house really super clean and tidy and clutter free when you are selling, then comes the packing! If you try to get all packed too early, then you are always wanting to get something and remember that it is already packed away – drives me out of my mind! If you leave packing to the last minute, then it is such a horrendous rush; nothing is organized or labeled properly, and things are not packed well and get broken. Then of course the backbreaking actual chore of schlepping heavy boxes, then the unpacking!
On the other hand, moving gives one a sense of fresh new beginnings, and the chance to re-organize and start out anew. A new community to explore, perhaps, and new friends to meet.
Good luck with your move!
Worst part of moving: Dread packing, absolutely dread it!
Best part of moving: The adventure of making new memories!!
The worst part of moving is trying to sort through all your stuff – what goes? what gets thrown out? what is this, anyways? whatever possessed me to buy/keep this in the first place?
The best part of moving is going through all your stuff and finding long lost items, stories and memories!
I don’t think I can compete with Elizabeth Yow, but my worst story of moving (and I’ve moved overseas 5 times now) was when the movers packed the garbage can (NOT empty!) in the kitchen and had it on the truck for the overseas shipment before I even knew it. Believe me, when I opened that box six weeks later, I was ready to throw EVERYTHING out! CAT FOOD TINS!
Moving is great and absolutely horrific at the same time. I’m not much for packing up and getting everything carried up and down stairs, but I love when all the moving guys are gone, it’s completely quiet and you can just walk around the boxes and stuff with a cup of coffee in your hand. I guess it’s very much like traveling for me – one second I’m up over the roof, knowing it will be such a great, new place to be – looking forward to meeting people and see places. The next I’m sobbing on the floor, missing the known places and the pizza from my former-local pizza guy.
But hang in – every time you find a new little corner of your new home area, it will be like finding a true gem. Good luck with it all…
The worst thing about moving, amid all the tape and boxes, is that you cant pack up your friends.
Leaving friends behind is absolutely the worst part of moving.
The worst part of moving is all the goodbyes. Packing belongings that trigger sad memories of other goodbyes, setting aside for a yard sale other items that have triggered waytoomany goodbye tears. Saying goodbye after goodbye to friends and loved ones, knowing when (or if!) you see them again, it won’t be the same. Saying a goodbye-of-the-heart to your onetime home, knowing if you ever go back to the place, it will somehow seem so much smaller.
The best part of a move is that it *ends*.
Worst part of moving…is realizing you have way too much stuff and fighting the urge to burn it all!!!
We just moved from a 5 room two story farm house to a very very small rental…I feel your pain.
The worst moving experience we have ever had was when we moved from an apartment to a big farmhouse in the country. Said farmhouse was owned by Scott’s grandfather, and he kicked out two of Scott’s cousins so we could move in. Okay, the cousins were NOT taking care of the house and farm, and Gramps used us as an excuse to evict them.
Well, the day we moved (Dec 23rd), it was 25 below 0. All my plants froze in the back of the Uhaul on the way to the house, even though we carefully wrapped them, and when we got there, there was no heat. The cousins conveniently forgot to have the fuel oil tank filled, even though they had agreed to do so since they were given a full tank when they moved in. So, not only is it 25 below 0 outside, we have no heat, have to get in touch with the fuel oil place to deliver an emergency tank of oil, and we have to get in touch with a furnace guy to relight the thing.
The best move was to our current house, which is only 800 feet down the road from the last house. It was a breeze!
The best part about moving is it forces you to purge a lot of stuff. Stuff you haven’t seen or used in years can get donated, gifted or tossed rather than packed.
The worst part about moving is it forces you to purge a lot of stuff. You start to wonder exactly how and why you managed to amass all the crap in the first place.
Kelley aka BratKnits
The best thing about moving – during my last (and final) move, I found my missing crochet hooks. About 20 of them – in a bank pouch, trapped by the dust cover of an upholstered chair. They had been in hiding for about a year and a half.
The worst part of moving, besides packing everything up, is leaving great friends behind. Especially if you are moving from one continent to another, and you know you will never see those friends again.
Best thing about moving is waking up the next day in your new house and realising you made it, and the worst part (moving day!) is over. Worst thing about moving is not being able to remember which box the kettle is in…
Worst story of moving…
The forgot our car across the country. Then, the only brought half of our things. We had beds, but no sheets or blankets. We had bath products, but no towels. And on and on and on. The worst part was they delivered all the parts to our daughter’s crib, but none of the hardware. That never did show up. We ended up having to find the instructions (I know, laughable!) and go to home depot and purchase every screw and bolt. The other half of our shipment showed up about a week later. We were still short about 9 boxes total by the end.
My father used to work as a mover. One time they were sent to put a piano in a house that had 5 levels. The piano had to go in through the 1st level, down 10 flights of stairs into the bottom level. They had to negotiate corners, tear off door jams, tilt a baby grand piano in ways that they never thought of to get it there. When they were done, the customer-a concert pianist-sat down at the piano and started playing it. The piano played beautifully.
Best part of moving? Thinning out all the things you haven’t touched in years and getting things organized again (I have a lovely habit of accumulating…but never really finding a place for…things)
The worst? Getting organized…I have an issue with organization…love the result, hate the process!
The worst part of moving? Utilities. Finding stores again can be a challenge, but I like to think of it as a fun one, like a scavenger hunt. Utilities, though… The last time we moved, we scheduled the electricity to be turned on the day we moved in. When the electric guy came, he saw that it was empty and did everything he needed EXCEPT turn the power on. Because, you know, it was vacant and all. So we show up, a couple hours later, just as it was getting dark, and none of the lights would turn on. We had to get all the boxes into the house in the pitch dark. Oh, and I was 6 months pregnant, Texas’ summer was upon us, and since the power was off we had no air conditioning. That was a miserable night.
On the happy side, we had a ton of friends help us out, on both sides.
Worst Moving Story? . . . they are legion, but the worst was moving across the country with my now ex-husband in a UHaul truck that was full to bursting – and having the ruptured disks in my spine go out the day before the move. I rode and drove all the way across the country in a truck with bad shocks, in agony all the way . . . it was horrific.
The best thing is the first night sleeping in your new place and knowing that you are going to be there for a long time. The worst thing is waiting 10 days for your furniture to show up and basically camping in your new house.
I have moved so many times since college I can even give you a number. I enjoy the cleaning and purging and sorting. My worst move was in 2001 when I foolishly rented a van instead of a truck because I swore I was going to purge enough stuff to fit in a van. I was wrong and had to leave behind a cherished old wood desk from my college years. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have given it to someone but because the decision was made hours before I was scheduled to get on the road, I had to but it out by a dumpster. It kills me to think about losing that wonderful desk. Since 2003 I have only used moving companies and it feels really good not to have to pack up a truck but nerve racking when you watch all your belongings drive away with a stranger. Good luck.
The best part of moving: Clearing out and starting fresh.
The worst part of moving: Having to deal with the stuff that needs clearing and letting go of it.
When we bought the house we live in now, I got the Type A version of the Beijing flu the day before closing. I was feverish and almost delirious at closing and still have very little memory of it. I continued getting sicker so my family had to come help my husband do everything. They basically propped me up on the couch and moved around me. It was the week before Thanksgiving and we had told ALL of our extended family weeks before that we would have Thanksgiving in our new house and they were ALL invited! Because I insisted that I would be better by Thanksgiving, we did not change the plans. My stuff never got cleared out, because my family didn’t want to make decisions on my stuff so they packed everything up and moved it. When I wasn’t any better on Thanksgiving morning, my Mom came early in the morning to help my husband cook everything. Because there was so much stuff, they just pulled out the cooking essentials from the boxes and everything else went into the garage. Once again, I was just propped up on the couch, barely conscious. By six everyone had eaten and my brother-in-law looked at me and said “Hey, she’s not looking too good. Maybe she should go to the hospital.” The next thing I know I was being admitted into the hospital with pneumonia. I was there for eight days and ended up being sick for 42 days total. I still have no idea where some of my stuff ended up and I never really got to feel the “starting fresh” part of moving since I had boxes piled up in the garage for years afterward.
Worst move was two moves ago. I was sharing an apartment with a friend. After a couple years we’d both gotten sick of one another, but we were too foolish to realize that meant somebody should move before we really couldn’t stand one another. Things came to a head when I got a boyfriend, which pissed her off. She told a mutual friend she didn’t understand how I could have a boyfriend at all because I was too fat. Fortunately she never said that to me or to him, and she couldn’t say anything against him as he’d been her friend from before I’d met either of them.
The lease was in her name, so she got it transferred to a studio apartment in the same building, and exactly 30 days before that went into effect she gave me a letter telling me so, which she’d had a lawyer draw up. The best part is, she’d had the letter prepared the previous Thursday, and on Monday she’d agreed to have a couple of people crash with us the next weekend. She gave me the letter on Wednesday. So our houseguests may have picked up on some tension.
The boyfriend and I had been planning to move in together in the fall when his lease was up, so this was not a disaster, but it was a pain. That would have given us the choice of any available apartment in the city. Where he still had another 5 months on the lease, we had to transfer the lease over to a suitable apartment managed by the same company. That gave us about three choices.
The one we picked was a nice apartment, very sunny and clean, with a good layout and nice big closets. The only problem is that it was a fourth floor walkup. It was also literally halfway between our two current apartments, about a two-block walk from both. Naively, we thought our friends would be able to just walk the stuff over, so we didn’t hire a truck.
Moving day, our friends managed to get the couch and the bed over there, and a few loads of boxes. My mother pulled me aside and said, “I’m going to call some movers now, because I don’t want your father to have a heart attack.” We were already starting to get tired, and we’d barely made a dent in my stuff, let alone his, so this was a godsend. Or a momsend.
The movers brought over everything in short order except for one thing. They refused to touch my books. I had them all tied up with twine, and they informed me that was not an adequate packing method. I had at least 60 feet of bookshelf space, and half of that was paperbacks which were in two rows.
The boyfriend and I moved the books by ourselves the next day. We borrowed a big canvas wheeled bin from the junkstore around the corner, used that to bring all the books down the street, and hauled them up the center of the stairwell on a rope. We had two big backpacks and a clip. I’d fill one bag at the bottom while he emptied one at the top. Took us all day.
The best move was the next and last one, when we moved into our house. We hired movers ahead of time, and packed the books in boxes. Those poor guys earned their money! The books went from a fourth-floor walkup apartment to a third-floor bedroom in our new house. But we went from a two-bedroom apartment with a tiny kitchen to a five-bedroom house. We had so much extra room for a while! The mortgage wasn’t any more than our rent had been, and we’ve got it half paid off now. That was 15 years ago. Boyfriend has been husband for the past two. House is now as full of stuff as the apartment was. Fortunately spindles don’t take up too much room.
I have moved so much in my life, first as a kid (I went to 8 different grade schools), then in my first so-called marriage, that it’s hard for me to think of ANY good part to moving and all too many bad parts.
But there is this: when it’s time to move, at your own instigation, and not in too much of a hurry, there’s a chance to pick anew, to make a list of “things I really want in a home” and take your time to pick and choose a place that suits you best. It’s a chance to start fresh with a place that (had better be!) already clean, and before the furnishings all go in, to think about whether you want some fresh paint or a different flooring.
The worst bits: Having to box up what seems to be your entire life in a very short time, taking the order (or semi-order, as it may be) you’ve established and disassembling it, throwing it into boxes, and dropping it in a new place to be reassembled in some new order. Everything you pick up is a decision: where do I put this? and this? and this? Should I keep this? What IS this? And while all the packing and decision-making is going on, you’re living out of boxes and trying to live something like a normal life when you can find the pots but not the lids or anything to cook in them, you can find your pants but not your underwear, you’ve found the blankets but not the sheets and pillows, and if you could have your way, you’d pitch the lot and go live in IKEA.
I am a bit of a packrat, so for me, the best part about moving is being forced to sit down and look at every single item I own and make a decision on whether or not it is worth the effort to pack it up and move it. It is a great chance to purge “life clutter.” The worst part about moving is leaving everything familiar to you behind, your friends, family, favorite grocery store and venturing out into the unknown.
Luckily I’ve not had moving nightmares, tho it’s not fun. The oddest was when I moved back to the US from Austria. No furniture involved, but lots of “stuff”. For some odd reason, I packed my guitar (yes, inside it) and the case full of socks and underwear. While carrying it, the handle fell off. It just made the flight home so much more entertaining. The best move was just a few months ago. After 3 years of living with The Guy, I had enough of it. I called a local moving company, they were desperate for work, two guys showed up with a large van and whoosh. For $500, the whole works was in my house. Now I’ve got a big ol’ mess to sort, but I’m HOME. (And I’m ready to spin again, which The Guy didn’t approve of. How did I ever think that would work!) Hope your move is going better now!
Packing is bad, I learned early (moved a lot in college and right after) to use movers. Living off of junk food for a week is my worst part. I always mark all boxes which room they go to and generally have everything unpacked the night we are in. I move my kitchen and set up bathrooms first and dressers-I just put trash bags over the drawers.
My worst experience was when the movers were several hours late and then they dropped the one box, my collection of tea pots, several were my late grandmother’s and they were all broken.
I love the new start, the house is perfectly clean and you can have everything perfect, for at least a few days.
Good luck, I don’t envy you and the move, although sometimes I wish, when I look around at what a kid and man can do to a house, I could just walk out and step into a model house all set up and start over
I’m not a spinner, so don’t pick me, and this is not exactly on topic, but I highly recommend Dave Barry’s “Homes and Other Black Holes” as the most accurate guide ever to moving and/or buying a house. It will help keep you sane. The editions with the Jeff McNulty (sp?) illustrations are the best.
The worst thing for me the last time we moved was spraining my ankle and damaging all three tendons. I was carrying empty boxes home from work and stepped into a “pothole” on the sidewalk losing my balance and spraining the ankle. Poor J had to finish the packing (never let a man do the packing) and I was on crutches for weeks. My ankle stayed swollen from April until October and it was a full year before I really felt recovered. Be careful with those empty boxes!
The best part of moving is making new friends and discovering all the wonderful things about your new location. After I moved into my house I learned to knit and met all my wonderful fiber friends. My life is 100 times richer now and all because we moved.
I have moved so many times I stopped counting. The worst part of moving hands down is the packing. If you start too early you know your are going to need that thing you packed a week ago at the bottom of a box that you can’t find. Packing is just semi-controlled chaos.
Best part of moving is the anticipation and the excitement,
I really dont mind packing I always seem to find something I had lost soooo long ago.
now unpacking is another story it always feels like I’m living out of boxes for weeks.
My next move will hopefully be my last to my own little farm Someday it will happen I can only dream
Well, the best part about moving is getting rid of all the clutter that has accumulated over however long you’ve lived in your previous place. It’s nice to walk into your new house/condo/whatever and not have piles of paper/random toys/bags of yarn (what? is that just me?) all over the place. The worst part of moving is the physical moving part, actually packing and throwing things in the truck and unpacking. And this is made even more horrible when the truck that you booked in advance from U-Haul mysteriously isn’t at the U-Haul place, and you have to wait for three days before they get a truck for you, and your new landlords are mad that you have to move in on a holiday weekend, and the best advice you can get from the U-Haul people is that maybe you shouldn’t try to move on the first of the month. Hope things go smoothly, and it will be worth it once you get settled in the new place. Oh, and I hope I win, I’m going to tweet this and facebook it right now…
Moving all your animals. Wow. My move was only two cars, one pickup truck plus a giant U-haul truck. I think you have more to move than I did. I had to sell my loom because it wouldn’t fit in the truck…but I got a new loom out of the deal. Spinning wheel fit in my car and the kids took turns riding with Dad in the UHaul.
I am not moving but my Mom is moving into a
Senior apt. I went through her stash of knitting supplies and was surprised to find all the pattern books from my Grandmother including several for sweaters from the 1950′s and 1960′s that I still have and wear! It is the memories and reminiscing that is the best!
The best part of moving is that, if you do it right, you can get rid of a whole lot of extraneous stuff without guilt and the local thrift shop will love you.
The worst part for me is that no matter how hard I try to be organized when putting things away in the new house, I can never find anything without a major search.
Moving brought the close to a great relationship with a supportive neighborhood of good friends and family. We have never recovered the wholeness of the old hood. We did however get rid of a LOT of unnecessary baggage. The plstic 5 gallon jug of pennies shattered across the moving van and the cast iron skillets were lost for a really long while. Blessing on your move, what ever comes of it.
The best: fresh start!
The worst moving story I know: some friends of mine packed their home & their life lovingly into boxes. Even their fish were all in baggies awaiting their new home. Moving from Albuquerque to Amarillo, just a 4 hr drive…3 hrs into the drive, Jared notices smoke in his side view mirror, he pulls over and lifted the door of the rented Uhaul…everything-furniture, photo albums and yes, the fish- everything completely gone on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Moving sucks.
Best parts of moving: A new space to play in, filled with promise and lots of boxed.
Worst parts: Making the old place a fresh place for new people–I hate cleaning.
The best part of moving is change. I love having new spaces to fill, new places to explore, new routines to make.
The worst part was finding problems after the move — in my case, a wet foundation and a busted sewing machine, both costly to repair.
Ugh, moving. The worst parts are of course packing up all of your stuff (and realizing just how much stuff you actually have), that hectic day when you’re shuffling between the two places and carrying tons of boxes, and the top to bottom cleaning out of the old residence can be tiring and creepy with all the strange echos.
The good parts of course are that it’s a way to make a brand new start. By packing up your stuff you can purge and tidy, which means less unpacking at the end. Painting a new place is always tons of fun and it’s great exercise. Finally, having that first day’s dinner, which in my case is most often takeout from the area, is a nice way to end the hard work and to look towards the future of the new place.
Moving is realizing how much junk you actually have. On the other hand, it is a prime opportunity to get of much of that junk. Because God knows you can’t haul ALL of it with you.
But the good parts are re-organizing, and for a whole darn week the house is just lovely.
The worst part about moving: If you pack early, everything you need is in a box somewhere. If you leave out everything you need, you end up packing in a hurried rush the night before moving day!
The best part about moving, especially moving to Virginia: new beginnings! a fresh start! (Specific to VA: you’re moving to wine country!)
Best part I believe is arranging all your stuff in a new atmosphere. Love it when the last box is unpacked and everything has its new spot.
Worst is all the clutter until this is accomplished.
Someone told me once (in my 20s, when I moved every couple of years or so) that X number (3? 5? I don’t recall) of moves results in the same loss/damage as a house fire. As a firefighter, that really put things in perspective for me and explained why I simply couldn’t find things I knew I’d had previously.
Good? Well, you get to re-organize those kitchen cabinets and drawers. I am a creature of habit and won’t move things once I’ve gotten used to where they are, even if there is a better option!
Worst thing(s) about moving:
Packing up EVERYTHING. Throwing away stuff you forgot you had. Give it to Goodwill or just throw it out with the trash? Getting other stuff you forgot you had to the new place and THEN throwing it out because why did you pack it and haul it to the new place in the first place? Ten years later, finding stuff you never unpacked and should have thrown out all those years ago.
Having trouble learning to get around the new place.
Finding new places to get good prices on stuff. Figuring out new places to put all that stuff that you packed up and moved.
Best things: Making new friends. Seeing new places. Learning that people everywhere are good and kind.
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