Vacation's End
Sunday, July 7th, 2024 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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69F and partly cloudy tonight.
Haven't done much yesterday or today.
I talked to Tim & Colleen on the phone last night.
Both days I went to the house to run the hot water and leave food for Prowly.
He was there again today, upstairs on my bed, and I pet him again.
No way I can call in tomorrow, but if the stars aligned on Tuesday morning, I could get him to the clinic to be fixed... and call in... and bring him here in the afternoon.
Wouldn't be ideal... having to go back to work on Wednesday, but I still hate the idea of just leaving him behind.
The longer it takes for the house sale to close, the more chances I'd have to try this.
There's plenty of food left for him over there, and the power's not going off until the 25th.
I was told on Friday that they anticipate closing on Tuesday.
But the original prediction was the 19th.
If I have until the 19th, I can save the Prowly situation.
If not... what?.. I buy the house back and reunite with him then?
That could be doable, if my union's successful this August, in getting us a raise... but it'd still take a couple years at least... to get that credit score back where it'd need to be.
And the house would have to be for sale, of course.
I'm okay with this little flat for now, and I do like the downtown life.
But I'm not okay with never having a cat again.
It'd be nice if that cat was Prowly... fixed and tame.
If that's not meant to be, then I'll wait until I have a bigger space.
But either way... I'm not content to stay in this studio forever.
I'm all clean & shiny, and my laundry's in the washer downstairs in the laundry room.
I will say, the shower experience here is way better than that bombed-out shower stall upstairs at the house that I used for ten years!
If you can call this a vacation, then it's over in the morning.
Last Sunday I was still loading the truck.
The whole week feels like a crazy blur, in retrospect.
But these past three days, I've been able to just live the new life.
The parking garage is, I think, the trickiest part... just because it's a block away.
Yesterday I forgot my little truck when I went out to get beer, and so had to leave it in the car when I got back.
I didn't go back for it until after midnight, which is a little sketchy.
Today it was rainy, and I didn't have an umbrella for the walk, because it was in the car.
A similar thing happened in the laundry room just now, where I got down there and had neither detergent, nor my phone... which I need to start the machine.
Inside the flat, since everything has it's place, it's easy to put things away immediately after using them.
That foot of space beside the bed, and behind the rocker, along the north wall... is surprisingly easy to get in and out of, when I do need to be back there.
The rocker, on it's platform, is so light, it's nothing to rock it out of my way.
The exhaust fan's doing it's job of keeping the air fresh, but getting that bathroom vent to open, if it's possible, would still be nice.
The window, during the day, is pretty bright when I'm sitting here at the terminal, so I have to keep the blinds closed.
And the AC unit's also blowing right on me, here at the desk, which can be a little much.
The kitchenette... I really have to give big props to!
Somehow the cabinets, drawers, sink, and even the counter space, are all big enough to accomodate supplies, and allow for normal kitchen activities, like making coffee, washing a cup, or cutting a pizza.
I'm so glad my mini-fridge fits under the base cabinet, because that too has a surprisingly large amount of space for food.
And the air fry oven is also great!
I mean... it's a good thing I was already living a pretty efficient life upstairs at the house for so many years before this... because that's the lifestyle you need to be living in a place like this.
But I have that experience, so I can live here comfortably.
There's no recycling service at the building, which means garbage is garbage.
So it's an easy thing to just take one bag down every morning on the first trip out of the building.
It's impossible to hear the neighbors from inside the flat.
If there's noise in the hallway, near my door, I'll hear it.
And I can hear sounds from outside through the window, though they're quiet.
But nothing else!
And I haven't run into anybody in the hall yet, either.
I've had an occasional chat with a person on the elevator, but the overall privacy level is on par with living in a neighborhood house, where you see and hear some people when they're outside, but mostly just do your thing unnoticed.
The way the flat is arranged, and with it's mirrors and window... and it's lamps and candles... there's a surprising variety of scenes and moods to the place.
Sitting on the rocker is very different from sitting at the desk, laying in the bed, standing at the kitchenette, or being in the bathroom.
And having one lamp on at night, versus no lamps and candles at night, versus daylight with blinds down, and daylight with blinds up... are all very different moods.
Dark, with just candles, and the city lights, on a Saturday night... it's a different place than in the afternoon at the desk with the blinds down... or like tonight with the night stand lamp on.
Overall, what this feels like is not so much starting a new life, as... surviving a disaster, but being surprisingly comfortble in the little place I wound up.
It still bothers me a lot that I'm losing the house, and that I couldn't find anything but a studio apartment.
But both those things are the function of a predatory housing market, coupled with greed-flation... and the extremely bad timing of Dad's death.
Under the circumstances... working against all kinds of timers and trip wires I also could not control... I think I've done okay!
I really was lucky to find this place when I did!
And it still wouldn't have been a viable option if I didn't already have the efficiency furniture that I have.
I still can't believe I moved myself without the help of a single soul, or that I did it so fast!
And it's amazing I was able to tie this whole place together with matching rugs and runners and such... like I wanted to live in a studio on purpose!
Some of that was due to resourcefulness, but more was due to luck... especially getting the promotion to maintenance at Potawatomi when I did, and finding this place when nothing else was available.
A little good luck in a sea of bad!
So I'm sitting tight for the moment.
And with a little more luck, I'll be better than okay.
But landing here was not the resolution to the crisis that began in 2022.
This is just a safe harbor, and some time to get my head straight.
Laundry's back up here... folded, and put away.
I'm happy to report that one spin's all I need in these dryers.
The app's nice for starting the washer and dryer, and telling you how long they'll go... but there's no push notification to tell you it's done... or any way to check on the progress.
So, like I said, I had to make two elevator trips for the wash, because I forgot my phone and detergent.
And then I made a pointless trip to check the dryer when it was still running.
Could've avoided that by setting a timer.
This is possibly relevant, if I can get Prowly here.
Because if so, I can't be going in and out the door fifteen times in an hour like a dumb ass because I forgot this and that!
Tomorrow begins a new week.
And I won't know until we're into it, what the time frame is for the closing... and thus, the chances there may be left to incorporate Prowly back into the mix.
July has brought me into uncharted waters.
Every month before this... going back to January of 23, when Dad died... I had some idea of what to expect, and how far I could go.
But right here, right now?.. I can't see what the summer has in store.
It's just one day at a time for now.
°¦}
