Monday, August 16, 2021

Snapshots from a Full Week-end in the New Place

--I started a load of laundry this morning, and as my noisyish washer got its work underway, I thought about neighbors.  But then I did a quick calculation and realized that the washer was against a wall that has a communal hallway on the other side of it.

--Although I'm trying to be mindful, I still can't quite figure out how sound travels in this condo building.  Happily, I don't have a lot of habits that will impact neighbors.  I don't like loud music anymore, after decades of being subjected to the loud music of others.  I'm not up at 2 a.m. dancing.  I do have a heavy footstep, but so far in this building, I haven't heard feet.  I hear the occasional voice in the hallway, which is strange.  Even the apartments we had in grad school didn't have this kind of enclosed communal hallway; it's more like being in a dorm.

--It's been a week-end of various noises, but happily, not nearly as unbearable as last Sunday's soca festival in the arts park.  I've heard tree frogs, sirens, voices, stray music from a car, cars roaring down streets, rain sweeping through, and of course, the humming of hundreds of air conditioners. 

--We got a lot of unpacking done this week-end, in large part because we were looking for the remote for the T.V.  My spouse had just tossed it into a box, but he didn't label the box.

--I did walk to the grocery store across the street to get ingredients to cook for dinner.  But I also drove the car to the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market to restock our food stores.  We'd been trying to eat everything in the pantry so that we had less to move to the new place.  It's good to have enough food in the house to have some choice in what we eat.

--I went back to the old house very early on Saturday to meet my brother-in-law and his wife to take them to the airport.  Their car is now parked in our driveway.  I like that it makes the house look lived in, particularly while we're still trying to find someone to fix the gate.

--After I returned to the condo, I walked downstairs and went to the Danish bakery.  In a time that seems like very long ago, a colleague brought in treats from that bakery to work.  Saturday's treats were not as tasty as the work treats, but they also didn't have the cinnamon pecan creation that I remember eating long ago.

--On Saturday, we took a break from moving to sit on the balcony waiting for the rain to sweep through.  We played Yahtzee, drank some wine, ate some cheese, and decided that our time for moving was over.  We unpacked, and we figured out how to connect the television to the cable that comes as part of our rental fee.

--Wow--there are so many cable channels.  We haven't had cable since the 90's, so it's astonishing how many more channels we get with today's cable.  But now as in the 90's, most of them are not ones that interest me, not even remotely.

--As we've gotten settled in, my mind occasionally goes to other places we considered renting.  I'm glad we decided not to rent the one bedrooms.  It's much easier with two bedrooms, plus with this new variant of COVID-19, we might still need to have the ability to isolate from each other.  It also gives us more options with remote classes.  I'm glad we decided not to go to some of the sprawling complexes in the western part of the county.  I like the character of this neighborhood, which is still part of our old neighborhood in many ways.

And now it's on to the next project:  getting the old house ready for market.  Today the person who is pressure washing and painting arrives to get started, while my spouse continues to do painting touch up on the inside.  I will wait for that process to be over before I do a deep clean.

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