Yikes - an entire month has gone since since my last entry! The big move on Saturday, Jan. 29 went fairly smoothly. Our new apartment leasing office messed up our move-in date. For some reason they though we were moving in Feb. 1 even though we had signed our lease! So our apartment was not going to be ready until 5 pm that day. That was not good and Darcy negotiated to have the time moved to 2 pm. I had book a UHaul truck from 8 am to 4 pm and was luckily able to change my reservation to 10 am to 6 pm.
We ended up having four friends help out which was a blessing and made the move go fairly quickly. We started at my place first and backed up the truck to the rear patio door. I had more stuff than I thought but managed to have the place pretty much cleared out by noon. Next we drove to Darcy's and loaded her stuff plus we used our friend's vehicles. In hindsight renting a 17 foot truck would have made the move even easier. The weather was cool so I didn't overheat like with my last two moves here.
I treated everyone to lunch and then our convoy headed to our new place. We arrived there at 2:30 and discovered a painter in our apartment! Not a good sign. The office apologized profusely and said the complex's owner was in town and there was little time to get our unit ready (it was empty for ten days before we moved in). Anyway - the carpet was vacuumed although I'm not sure I believe them when they said it was steam cleaned. The walls were dusty and had cobwebs in ceiling corners. Plus the garburator didn't work, light bulbs were missing in fixtures, etc. The big thing was the master bedroom window alcove area had suffered water damage to the wall and ceiling. There were cracks, paint chips and the wall was ready to cave in with only a bit of pressure to it.
Not much as been fixed as of this writing and we are getting frustrated. Other than that the apartment is very nice and roomy and cool temperature wise. Our balcony faces a canal, is shaded by trees and faces west. So we don't get a lot of sun which is nice. Makes it a bit dark but I don't mind it at all. It's so refreshing after over four years of living in an sweaty armpit environment. We did move during this so-called cold snap but I don't think the hot, humid summer will increase the inside temp as much as my old place.
I spent the night of the 30th in my old place as I needed to do the walk through with that office the next morning. Plus I had one last car load of stuff to haul out. My roommate didn't have much stuff. Unfortunately he didn't have room to take my old desk so I had to throw it out. It must have been about 30 years old as I remember making models on it with my dad in Edmonon in the 1970s.
I've had to discard more stuff - mainly t-shirts. There were many that I hadn't used in years and we don't have the space to store it. I've whittled down my clothing to about two dozen long sleeved shirts and double that for shirt sleeved shirts/t-shirts. Bear in mind I have bought few long sleeved shirts since moving here so most are from my Edmonton/Spokane years. I basically wear short sleeved shirts for work, weekends and working out. Not bad, I think, for sheer numbers. We need to shop for a portable shelving unit to fit in our guest room wall length closet. That way I can easily store all my Star Trek magazines and books. Not enough book cabinets and wall space to display that. I'm at the point of wanting to sell many of my comics but ideally it would be nice to re-read them first. Have to go to EBay and see what they're worth plus check out the Overstreet price guide.
Have been too tired and busy with unpacking to work out in the last two weeks. I knew this was coming and will get back in the groove, hopefully, at some point. I have weights and bench organized in the guest room. So far it's fun living with Darcy - we haven't had many arguments :) It feels right I suppose after knowing her for almost five years and being engaged for eight months and getting married in six months.
No news on the wedding plans. I've been waiting for an interested NAIT student to email me but have heard nothing. That is not good since the request went out almost a month ago. Guess I need to update our wedding blog one of these days. Last bit of news is that I'll be visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Denver in late March. No good deals online so bought a $357.00 ticket on Orbitz. Will be flying on United so I'll collect more airmiles. Have enought for a free flight so will cash that in for our flight home in July.
We attended Harmonic Motion's last monthly performance party yesterday. It was great and the live music fantastic! Plus Darcy was one of two features dances and performed marvelously. She doesn't give herself enough credit. My drumming continues to come along slowly. Our yoga classes are in jeopardy as our teacher has been forced to move out of her building due to renovations and exorbitant rent increases. She has been looking for a new location and will likely find one but perhaps not right away. Her last class is the end of February. I'm growing a beard to portray Abe Lincoln for the kids again. But this time it's only for one day! It's getting late and my legs are cramping again from sitting for so long. Guess that's all for now...
posted by Michael at 7:52 PM
