Thursday June 1, 2000
Ahhhh! Cable is installed, Music Choice is cranking and I’m online.
Life is good!
Living offline for the past week has been a welcome respite. It took away all my excuses
for not doing things around the house. I never fretted over e-mail, site logs or who was
updating their journals and their crises. I felt cocooned and insulated while I spent my
time feathering the nest.
And it’s a fine nest too. I’m so happy and comfortable in the new apartment. I
can’t believe a simple change of venue has made so much difference in the way I feel.
I’ve devoted a lot of time to thinking about why.
The conclusion I’ve come to is I wasn’t really happy with the old apartment
right from the get go. I fell for the skylight in the kitchen and put up with the rest.
And I was in really bad space when I moved there. It never really wore off. Or if it did,
it wore off onto that apartment. So other than the anxiety I always feel about moving in
general, I was really glad to leave that place.
I’ve written a bit over
the past couple of weeks. Some notes went out to the members of the notify list and I
worked on an entry or two. Catching up, here’s what’s been going on:
To: Scenic Route Notify List <brucew@egroups.com>
From: Bruce Wilbur <>
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 20:01:58 -0400
Subject: [brucew] Monday - E-Mail Update
Hi Friends!
Well the cable is still on. I just don't want to confuse the general public with an update
the day after announcing a hiatus.
We took two loads of stuff out of here today in my dad's minivan. I was amazed at how
little is left. The desk and PC, both futons, the electronics and credenza, the microwave,
dishes and food, my dresser, and a few clothes. If I could persuade my dad to help us one
more day, I think we could clear everything out in three more loads.
I'm really pleased with how much junk I cleared out. Five loads in a minivan, and not even
an extended length one, isn't that much stuff. Oh, there was the one load that came from
my parents' house, but that wasn't even a full load.
My old landlord is already making security deposit noises. I have the feeling she wants to
remodel this place on my nickel. I'm already thinking of legal strategies to use in Small
Claims Court. (For instance, it'll be easy to light her short fuse to make her have one of
her trademark hysterical fits of rage in the courtroom.)
If you go back to last year you'll find that no matter how I leave this place it will be
in better condition than when I moved in. But as you recall, she's crazy and she never
liked Jeffrey, so she's exacting her punishment on me.
Still, since she'll be nitpicking about the place, I'm going through it with a fine
toothed comb. I am responsible for about a dozen screw holes from the paintings, a couple
of nicks in the wall behind the futon in the living room, a few scratches on the floor
under it, and I broke a wand off one of the blinds when I was opening a window.
I'm filling and painting all the holes, even the ones that were here when I moved in. (I'm
taking a break from that now.) But out of spite, I'm leaving the old nails and screws that
were painted-over whenever she painted last. (Anything more that the one mini-blind and
some scratch filler on the floor and I'll see her in court.)
I already pulled out the fridge and stove and cleaned the walls behind them, the floor
beneath them and their hidden sides, (I don't think it had been done in ten years. There
was (literally) a half-inch of crud under the fridge). Then I washed all the kitchen walls
and the cabinets. She's having the ceiling (only) painted when the squirrel holes are
fixed.
I washed the ceiling in the living room a few months back, (I can put up with dirty walls,
but my ceilings must be pristine) so that leaves the walls. There are the inevitable marks
and all the paintings are outlined. I'm being careful not to clean them too well. I'm
cleaning the marks just enough so they match the dirt on the rest of the wall. This isn't
out of spite, but in defense. Over-clean spots are likely to stand out.
Anyway, the aches and pains are starting to set in accompanied by stiffness. (No! Not
there!) So I'm gonna call it a day. Just in case anyone ever asks you, it's a bitch to use
the microwave when it's on the floor.
To: Scenic Route Notify List <brucew@egroups.com>
From: Bruce Wilbur <>
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 23:23:10 -0400
Subject: [brucew] Tuesday - E-mail update
Oh my achin' back!
Why is it manufacturers seem to think everyone's 4'-3"? I shampooed the rugs at the
new place today. I borrowed my parent's rug shampooer. I spent hours hunched over because
Bissell thinks only midgets clean carpets. I'm 5'-10", about average height for an
American male in my age group. All they need to do is sell the machine with three sections
of tubing instead of two. Midgets could jettison the third section and the rest of us
could clean our carpets standing up like proper humans.
This is the third attempt at this update. The first was lost to a momentary power outage.
I saved as I went along and only lost a paragraph of the second. We've been having three
or four of them daily since they replaced something two weeks ago as part of the utility
work for the University Ave reconstruction. All the more reason to move.
I've lost most of my apprehension with the new place now that I've actually spent some
time there. Although it's on a major street, the traffic noise is less than I expected.
The fire trucks across the street didn't even bother me, although that could be a simple
case of novelty.
There was a pleasant surprise in this morning's e-mail. John, a Notify List member and
fellow Rochestarian, offered his services and those of his F-250 to help us move on
Friday. He wondered if I'd forgotten about him. No I hadn't, but I had forgotten that he
owns a pick-up. We talked on the phone this evening and made arrangements for late Friday
morning. So by Friday night this place will be empty and we'll spend our first night at
the new apartment.
The forecast is for partly cloudy (what else?) with the high in the low 70s. If things
work out, it will be a comfortable day for moving. Since you can't stack stuff in a
pick-up like you can in van, (at least you can't if you want to keep it in the truck) it
may take an extra trip to complete our move. Still, John will earn himself all the coffee
he can drink, a seat or two at the table for our housewarming party, and our undying
gratitude.
Since the power’s on the fritz, I'm sending this while I still can.
To: Scenic Route Notify List <brucew@egroups.com>
From: Bruce Wilbur <>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 10:48:30 -0400
Subject: [brucew] Thursday - E-Mail Update
Hi Friends!
Well the cable is still on so I thought I'd send out a final note before I tear down the
PC.
Final packing is today. My first order of business will be packing the electronics and
pulling up all the wire I've run about the place. The credenza is next on the list. As you
recall it's over seven feet long and solid cherry. We had to get it into this apartment by
dead-lifting up the side of the back staircase after I removed the handrail. It'll have to
go out the same way. I decided to remove the doors to save 20 or 30 pounds and give us
some hand holds.
I saved all the boxes for the electronics when I purchased them. I won't have any place to
store them at the new apartment, so I jettisoned them all last night (Thursday AM is trash
and recycling pick-up.) The only ones I kept are the boxes for the speaker towers. Every
time someone tries to move them, myself included, their first instinct is to use the
topmost woofer as a finger hold. This could be very bad. I'm not sure where I'll store
those boxes, but I'll have to find some place.
Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find the phone was on at the new apartment. This
solved a scheduling problem that would have kept me there today waiting for the phone
company instead of packing here. So we spent the whole day over there settling in the
stuff that we'd already moved. We got the paintings hung, the bathroom setup and the
living room (sans credenza) arranged. We were both surprised at how well the rug turned
out after I shampooed it. It's still worn in the traffic areas but it's clean and no
longer matted.
The kitchen shrank a little once the table was put together. Width-wise, there's not much
room between it and the stove, and since the stove and table are at the living room end of
the kitchen, there will be a bit of a traffic problem. But there's sufficient length
available so we can keep one of the two leaves in it. That will be nice.
We're going to have to make a decision about the microwave. I put the microwave cart next
to the stove. I've never used the microwave cart for the microwave. I've used it for extra
counter space instead. If I put it on the cart, I'll have to run an extension cord to the
living room to plug it in. It's not a major issue since I have a heavy-duty three-prong
cord. But that will eliminate the use of the cart as counter space next to the stove.
There's only a foot of space between it and the sink.
The alternative is to put it on the counter next to the fridge. But that eliminates most
of the counter space in what I see as the "prep area". And I really wanted to
put the toaster over there because the only other plug is next to the sink. Water and
toasters don't mix.
Another task accomplished was checking out all the lights and plugs. It's a good thing I
did. The polarity was reversed on both plugs in my bedroom. This would have been a problem
for the PC. It would have worked, but the surge suppressor would not have. I had to change
the outlet for the PC anyway. As with most of the outlets in the place, it was an old two
prong one. Again, you need three prongs for the surge suppressor to suppress surges.
Furniture arrangement in both the living room and my bedroom is a problem because the old
style radiators stick out 18 inches into the room. Thus, both the credenza and my desk
won't be up against the wall. In the living room, however, it will just look weird.
My bedroom is another story. There are doors on three walls and the window is on the
fourth. The futon will fit in only one corner and the desk will fit only in front of the
window and the radiator. By my calculations, that will leave only two feet between the
desk and the futon. Simply sliding out the keyboard shelf will halve that. And since
Jeffrey's room and the bathroom are reached only by walking through my room, it'll be a
real traffic problem in addition to being an ergonomic one.
The silver lining is that it will force me to make the bed and fold up the futon every
day. It's something I should do anyway just for the sake of it. And, I've always wanted my
desk in front of a window. I'll be able to look out the window as I write. Of course I
won't be able to use the desk's hutch or I'll block all the light from the window. It will
be pressed into service as a headboard.
Well, time's a-wastin'. Time to disconnect.
Here’s two entries from earlier in the week:
Memorial Day, 2000
I finally got the PC set up today. After all these years it seems weird to sit down to the
keyboard without checking mail or doing some browsing. Internet or no, I doubt I’d
have spent much time at the PC over the past few days. I haven’t had the time or
energy.
Friday was the big day. It took us only three loads in the pickup to move everything.
Since these were the loads with the furniture, they were the most difficult. In the grand
scheme of things, except for the credenza and the TV, no particular item is particularly
large or heavy. It’s just that I’m not blessed with much physical strength. I
was ready to quit after the first load. Jeffrey really took up the slack.
Next time, I’ll have to remember to move the credenza first instead of last.
It’s big and heavy and not so easy to move after you’re already tired. It got a
few scrapes, mostly paint that rubbed off on to it. The paint came off with liberal
applications of Murphy’s Oil Soap and some scraping with a thumbnail. The scratches
disappeared with the first application of furniture oil. Other than that, nothing was
lost, damaged or broken.
John was alarmed to see how little food we had. We hadn’t been buying much simply
because we would have had to move it all and my cooler isn’t very big. After we
brought the credenza in, he took me grocery shopping. I was a zombie walking through the
store. I just threw random stuff into the cart. The next day I discovered I didn’t do
too badly and had actually collected enough stuff for a week’s worth of reasonable
meals.
Friday night I moved enough stuff around so we could reassemble the beds and locate the
bedding. I also reassembled my desk just so I could get the parts out of the way and have
another surface to stack boxes on. Before going out, Jeffrey sorted all the boxes
according so they were in the proper room. Our first dinner was ham and cheese and turkey
and cheese on whole wheat. Hardly gourmet, but it was all I was up to making.
Saturday morning we went back to the old place for the final cleaning. John brought along
his rug shampooer and digital camera. He did the floors while I reinstalled the handrail
on the back stairs. Then he documented everything. Every room from every angle, inside the
kitchen cupboards, the fridge and the oven, even the front stairs. If that bitch says I
left it a mess I not only have a witness, but I have photos.
Saturday afternoon I did the kitchen. I vacuumed and wiped out the cabinets and unpacked
all the kitchen stuff. I was delighted to find that for the first time in my life, I have
more cupboard space than I have stuff to fill them. And drawers! I have separate drawers
for the flatware, the cooking utensils and prep tools! And I still had two left. So one
went for just lunch bags and Saran Wrap and the other holds only my oven mitts. Imagine, a
dedicated drawer for oven mitts.
Next I tackled the living room. Well, that’s putting it a little strongly. I was
still beat from Friday and I hadn’t slept well Friday night. I never sleep well the
first night anywhere. I’d be a terrible, and tire, travelling salesman. Anyway, about
all I got accomplished before pooping out was moving the credenza and speakers around
until I was happy with their location. If it can be said that I’m happy they’re
18” from the wall on account of the radiator. Too tired to cook again, Saturday
dinner was Ragu and macaroni.
Sunday things really came together. I did more work in the kitchen and washed the windows.
Then I put the doors on the credenza and cleaned and oiled all the furniture. The big
chore was reconnecting all the electronics. I really had to think things through because
the system will now serve three rooms. Jeffrey will have a TV in his room and I’ve
run speakers into mine. Now there are two sets of speakers on my desk; one for the PC, one
for the stereo.
Flexibility in switching is the key and the complication. The audio was the easy part.
Anything can be played in either the living room or my room. The problem will come in
managing the contention for the digital cable box. My preferred audio source, Music
Choice, comes in on cable. So do about half of Jeffrey’s favorite TV stations.
It’s too complicated to explain here but with the exception of the digital only
channels, (56 and above,) anyone can watch, tape or listen to anything independantly in
any of the three rooms. After cable is hooked up of course. The only additional purchase I
have to make is a pair of “Y” cables for the audio output from the VCR.
Anyway, by dinnertime on Sunday, the kitchen and the living room were fully settled-in. It
looked like we’ve always lived here. Again, I was too tired to cook but
Jeffrey’s mother saved the day. She and her boyfriend brought dinner and we cooked in
the kitchen for the first time. Roast chicken. The bottleneck between the table and the
stove is less of an issue than I though it would be, if one has the cooperation of the
person sitting near the fridge. We passed drinks and snacks across the table.
I took advantage of the holiday today and lounged for the better part of the day. This
afternoon I set up the PC and unpacked all the desk stuff and a few more boxes. Because of
the radiator, the back of the desk is 18” from the wall and with the keyboard shelf
fully extended, I sit directly in the center of the room, which puts me directly under the
ceiling fan, which will be nice in the heat of summer. But he radiator also hides most of
the cables for the equipment. I just stuffed them under it.
All that remains to be unpacked is one big box of clothes and the laundry basket. Then I
have to go through the boxes that I’d stored in my parents’ basement. They take
up the better part of my walk-in closet, so I have the incentive to do it. I guess
that’s the silver lining to the cloud of having no basement or attic storage. I have
no choice other than to be ruthless in weeding out excess stuff.
Overall, I’m quite happy with the move and the new apartment. The place feels like
home already and the segregation of having our own rooms and not having the PC in the
living room is a great stress reliever.
Tuesday May 30, 2000
Today was a running around day. I’d forgotten to leave the keys at the old place so I
had to drop them off. Then I hit the DMV, the bank and the library for change of address.
The library was the most difficult of the three. You need to have something that’s
been mailed to you, like a utility bill or something. The bank never even asked for ID.
I’m not sure what that means, and I’m not sure I want to think about it.
At the library, after trying to change my address, returning some books and checking out
some more, I sat down at one of the internet PCs to get my fix. I was last online Thursday
morning. I checked mail and several favorite journals. I used up my entire daily usage
limit of 90 minutes before I was halfway through checking my favorite haunts.
It’s not as comfortable using the library’s PCs. The PCs themselves are nice
enough, but the ergonomics suck. The “long-term” PCs, (30 to 90 minutes) are on
a traditional library table with traditional wooded library chairs and are located
directly under the A/C vents. I froze, got a flat spot in my ass and my shoulders hurt
from reaching up to desktop level for the straight keyboard.
Tomorrow I’ll go to the branch closer to home to see if they at least have better
chairs. And it won’t cost me two bus fares. It’s nice to know that if I ever
become homeless I can still get a 'net fix at the library.
I also spent some more time getting to know the ‘hood. Well, it’s not the hood
hood, but it’s the hood. I kinda danced around the issue in the journal before I
moved because I wanted to live here a bit before writing about it.
I’m starting to get used to being called “white boy” when I walk down the
street. I actually prefer that to “Sir”. “Sir” usually means someone
wants something from me. “White boy” is much more neutral, and it gives me the
illusion of youth.
I never gave it a thought yesterday when I went over to Jeffrey’s mother’s house
to return a vacuum cleaner attachment. I lost the dusting brush for mine and had hoped to
find it when we moved. No such luck. Anyway, she’d sent it over with a section of
extension tubing. It’s flat black plastic, two inches in diameter and looks like a
weapon.
The guys hanging in front of the hand car wash around the corner, (I tend to think of it
as “The Hand Job”) eyed me very suspiciously as I walked up. When I got closer
they recognized it for what it was and offered to buy it, (addressing me as
“Sir”). I guess there’s a market for everything. But it reminded me I have
to careful about appearances around here. Not everyone would have noticed I was carrying a
plastic Hoover part.
And an e-mail update I sent from the library earlier in the day on
Tuesday:
To: brucew@egroups.com
Date: Tue, 30 May 2000 16:48:26 -0000
Subject: [brucew] Tuesday - E-Mail Update
Hi Friends!
We're all moved-in and I stopped at the library this morning for an Internet fix. I'm
allowed 90 minutes per day, so this will be a short one. There's a timeout thingy too that
bugs me every three minutes when I'm typing into a form like this one at e-Groups. And boy
is it hard to type on a straight keyboard at tabletop height whilst sitting in a wooden
library chair!
The weather was perfect for moving on Friday. The temp was in the low 70s and the humidity
was low as well. We got everything out of the apartment in just three loads and nothing
got permanently damaged or broken. I only skinned four knuckles.
John was a huge help. He even bought us all Happy Meals for lunch and took me grocery
shopping after the last of the stuff was carried in.
It's not taken me long at all to get the apartment into shape. All that's left to unpack
is one box of clothes and the half-dozen boxes that were in my parents' basement.
Overall, I like the new place. Although it wasn't as clean as I thought it was when we
looked at it, I would have cleaned everything anyway. I have yet to see any sort of insect
life or evidence thereof. Well a fly came in while Jeffrey had a screen open, but that
hardly counts.
There are two types of quiet apartments. One is quiet because the tenants move around like
church mice and speak in whispers. The other is due to solid construction. The old
apartment fell into the former category, the new apartment falls into the latter.
It's surprisingly quiet for being on a major street and set back from the curb only by the
sidewalk. The people across the hall had a party Friday night. I never heard it until the
guests went down the stairs. Jeffrey has cranked the stereo and the TV in the living room
without bothering me in my bedroom right next door. It's heaven.
Oh! I have a job interview tomorrow. It's another help desk job, temp to perm at the phone
company. I've heard horror stories about the sweatshop working conditions there but I'm
going to give it my best shot anyway. The bucks are okay and I withdrew my last ten
dollars from the checking account this morning.
If it doesn't pan out, there's an instant oil change place with a help wanted sign not
very far away, and there's always Labor Ready.
I'm almost out of time and the air conditioning is freezing. I hope cable will turn me on
Thursday. If not, we'll put it in Jeffrey's name. We'll lose our existing mailboxes, but
since we both use our addresses at brucew.com as our primary ones, it won't be that big of
a hassle.
Five minutes left and a few more sites to check...
Back to “real-time”:
Yesterday I had the interview with the phone company. The interview went well. I was well
rested and well prepared with a dozen questions. Towards the end I was feeling comfortable
enough to take the job but I had one last issue to discuss. I was candid with them about
what I’d heard about the working conditions. They were equally candid in
acknowledging that it had been a problem and how they’ve addressed it. I liked their
answer. I hope to hear from them tomorrow.
I went to the neighborhood branch of the library in the afternoon. I had thought it would
be a five-minute walk, it turns out to be closer to ten minutes. It’s still not bad
though. They have only two Internet PCs there and I had to wait my turn. The ergonomics
are no better than at the main branch and they’re directly across from the main desk
and not nearly as private, so I didn’t do much other than check mail.
I think eight pages in Word is enough for one day and I have plenty of surfing to catch up
on so I’ll call it quits here. I spent a few minutes earlier this afternoon taking
some pictures of the place with Mark’s digicam. The software for it doesn’t run
under Windows NT so we’ll have to wait for him to download them to his PC and e-mail
them to me before I post them. I expect to have a new “My Place” page up over
the weekend.
Friday June 2, 2000
This morning, John e-mailed the pics he took last Saturday. There
haven’t been any new pics of yours truly since a year ago April, so I thought
I’d share a couple.
“What? Did I miss a spot?”
“Boy, I'm glad to be out of here!”
It's not a sign of confidence that I was painting white walls while wearing a black
t-shirt. It's a sign that I was tired and never gave it a thought. But the evidence speaks
for itself. Except for a dab or two on the knuckles, it all went on the walls! And how
about that second shot? I still cut a fine figure for 42. Okay, 43 in couple of weeks.
No specific word yet on the
job. The guy at the agency said it doesn’t look good since phone company is going to
interview more candidates. Perhaps they didn’t like anyone. It’s just another
rejection and I enjoyed the interview and learned a few things from it. So I guess
I’ll change oil or sweep floors or something.
Derrell made a face at me when I said the same thing to him in the car. (We went to the
reservation this morning on a “drug run” for cigarettes.) I have no qualms about
doing something other than what I’ve been doing for the past few years. I’ve
only done computer work because the money’s better. Frankly, doing something mindless
would probably be better for my mental health. I explained to him that, unlike most
people, I don’t use my job to give myself a sense of identity. A job is something I
do, not someone I am. In any event, I’ll keep searching.
There’s not much else to report this afternoon. It’s been raining on and off all
day. It makes me sleepy so I guess I’ll give in to the urge to nap.
Saturday June 3, 2000
Have you ever cleaned a bathtub with a shovel? No? Neither had I until this
afternoon.
A friend of Mark’s needed someone to clear out a burned-out house a couple of blocks
from here. He suggested Jeffrey, and Jeffrey worked there on Thursday. Jeffrey told the
guy it’s a two-man job and suggested that he hire me as well. The guy liked
Jeffrey’s work and trusted his judgement. Cash is cash so I went.
It was partly curiosity. I’d never been in a burnout before and I thought that in
itself would be interesting. But I also knew the house. It’s across the street from
Derrell’s mother’s place. It’s also architecturally interesting and as I
waited out in the car for him one day I wondered about the layout of the interior rooms.
Inside it’s dark and a damp, sooty, charred wood smell permeates the place. Just like
they say on TV, you can tell exactly where the fire started. It was in the kitchen of the
second-floor apartment. Starting at the stove, it consumed the entire room and spread to
the adjoining bathroom, the living room and a bedroom. It also went through the ceiling,
attic and roof.
It reminded me why I keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen, and why I keep it near, but
not too close to the stove.
There’s soot and water damage to the rest of the house and even months after the fire
the basement floor is covered with four inches of thick, sooty, muddy goo. This too must
be cleared out. Which was bad enough. Then we discovered the sewage backup.
Between the dust in the air on the second floor and the none too healthy conditions in the
basement, we could only work for a while in each location. And we alternated tasks to keep
from getting bored or overburdened. It went well.
The work is pretty easy. Anyone who can operate a shovel can do it. The owner didn’t
want to rent a dumpster so we fill boxes and bags with debris. What doesn’t fit in
boxes, like carpeting and long or wide pieces of lumber, is bundled and tied. This all
gets carried out and piled on the porch. Tomorrow night after six, we have to carry it
from the porch and pile it at the curb for Monday bulk pickup.
Shoveling out the tub, I found a lava flow sculpture is all that remains of the fiberglass
tub surround. As it melted and burned, it flowed along the rim of the tub to the corner
then down the corner of the tub before splitting into two flows. When I peeled it out, it
looked like the headless corpse of a child.
Every once in a while, you come across an identifiable something or a portion thereof. A
beanie-baby, clothing, canned goods (no doubt cooked inside) a hairspray bottle. (Why
didn’t that burn?) It brings to mind the former occupants and somehow makes them
real. You feel for their loss. Then you find several dozen pint liquor bottles in the
basement and empty crack bags in some of them and you realize their loss began long before
the fire.
Sunday June 4, 2000
Willie phoned the other night. He used some voice-over-IP internet phoning
thing that only cost the price of a local phone call. The sound quality isn’t so hot,
it breaks up at times and it’s only half-duplex, which means you have to take turns
talking like on a walkie-talkie. Still, it was great to hear his voice again after all
this time.
He’s between jobs right now. Jeffrey and I took this as an excellent opportunity to
ask Willie to visit. He has a tourist visa, now he has the time and few bucks in the bank.
But he’s understandably feels that spending money on international air travel while
unemployed isn’t exactly a prudent thing to do no matter how much he wants to visit.
I guess we’ll have to settle for half-duplex phone calls and the new essays he’s
writing.
Earlier this evening, we
finished up at the burned-out house. There’s all the renovation work to be done yet
and the guy hinted around that he might like us to do some of it. If it weren’t for
the licensing requirements for plumbing and electric, we could handle it all. The only
part of it I’ve never done before is vinyl siding, but it can’t be that
difficult. Even if all he has us do is drywall and finish work there’s plenty of that
to be done, but it’s a long way in the future.
During a break from the stench in the basement today we explored the garage. It’s
falling over and really should be torn down. Inside there were literally hundreds of empty
crack bags on the floor. Neighbors later informed us it had been a crack house. This led
to the speculation that they were cooking a batch on the stove when it ignited. Who knows?
In any event, the neighbors were glad to see the tenants go. It’s one of the nicer
streets in the neighborhood. Nicer is a relative term. One of the streets between here and
there is split into roughly a third burnouts, a third for sale and a third in various
stages of disrepair.
The next street over from that achieved a certain notoriety last summer for being so
infested with crack houses, (word is 40 of 60 on the street) that the police simply
blockaded the street between midnight and 6AM. It was the most expedient means of dealing
with the issue given the burden of proof required for arrest and conviction.
There seem to be more families and fewer expensive cars than on other streets. Both are
indicative of better people. So, relative to some other streets around here, it is a nicer
street. But it’s still a welfare class or working-poor class street.
I’d still rather live here on the main drag. It’s a shorter walk to everything
we need. There’s a neighborhood grocery and meat market across the street and on the
other side of the intersection. I did our weekly grocery shopping there last night. I was
pleasantly surprised to find the prices were so competitive with the grocery chains. It
explains the non-stop traffic I see there every day. Other stores around here are so
overpriced it’s a wonder anyone can afford to eat.
While I shopped, Jeffrey took the laundry over to the laundromat. The nearest one
isn’t quite as nice as “Sudsville”, the one by his mother’s house, so
he went over there. While it costs money now to do the laundry and we have to walk a few
blocks there and back, the time savings is worth it. An entire week’s worth of
laundry for two people took just under two hours from hamper to hangers. I used to spend
the better part of a day doing it.
And so ends the first full week in the hood… |
