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- Oct 31, 2009
Nov 1-4, 2009 Nov 5-11,2009 Nov 12-15,2009 Nov 16-Dec 2, 2009 Dec 3-6, 2009 Dec 7 -, 2009 |
In Colorado - November 5 - 11, 2009
The weather would continue to be beautiful for this segment of our journey. Denver had had a blizzard near the end of the previous week and would have another snow storm shortly after we headed east. But for the week we were here, it was gorgeous! Thursday, November 5 After breakfast at the motel, we got into the car and drove towards the apartment complex. Our first stop was actually Walgreen’s, where Carl picked up some cold meds. He has a small head cold that will plague him for most of this stay. Once at the apartment office, we had a ton of forms to sign. Lawyers!!! However, we soon got the keys and directions to our new unit. There’s a large pile of snow blocking the on street parking directly in front of the apartment. By the end of the week, it was almost gone. We spent most of the rest of the morning going over the apartment with a fine toothed comb, filling out the inspection form. There’s not much wrong - mostly normal wear and tear. However, the skylight in the loft has a crack in it that’s letting weather in. That one’s serious. There’s also a loose piece in the front step and one of the closet doors doesn’t quite close. We reported these and turned in the paperwork, grabbed a quick bite to eat, then went back to the motel for the truck. While there, we loaded as much of the stuff from the motel into the car as we could and took both vehicles back to the apartment. We’d spend the rest of the afternoon moving stuff from the truck to the apartment. The maintenance man came by while we were working and screwed down the loose piece in the step. He also banged on the closet and the door sticks in a different place now... The skylight will require an outside service. They’re putting it out for bid. It hadn’t been worked on by the time we left... (Later - as of 12/16, it still hasn't been fixed...) We worked pretty hard and got the bedroom set up and the dressers in place. And most of the truck unloaded. Stuff that is destined for the storage unit is being put into the garage for now. We wore out about six and headed back to the motel for the night. Dinner was at Sweet Tomatoes again. Friday, November 6 Breakfast was at the motel again. Then we reloaded the car with everything that was in the motel, checked out, and headed back to the apartment. We’d spend the day settling stuff. Not very interesting, but we worked pretty hard. We also did some exploring and some shopping. Things like shower curtains, toilet paper, cereal, sandwich makings, all the things that moving in requires. (Or we may have done the shopping stuff yesterday. I don’t remember...) At the grocery store, we were stopped by a vendor at the door. He was selling subscriptions to the Denver paper. Well, he was persuasive. We signed up for six months, to be started later. Our initial start date was given as 12/31, but we can call them and change the date when we’re ready. We sort of wanted a beer and a pizza for dinner, so I called the office for a recommendation. They pointed us towards one place, but they remembered wrong. That wasn’t an Old Chicago on that corner, but a Uno... Not the same. I thought I remembered one over by Target, but, once we got there, no dice. Instead, it was an area that made me think of City Walk in Orlando (or Pointe Orlando where the kids like to go for movies). There was a 24 screen theater and lots of fancy or weird places to eat. After wandering around for a while, we walked into Dave and Buster’s and had burgers and beer. The back portion of this place is an amusement area complete with more arcade games than you can shake a stick at! Amazing! Plus three or four billiard tables and even had skeeball.... It was an interesting experience, but weird... This will be our first night sleeping in the apartment. One thing we quickly discovered is that we can’t both take showers at the same time. Instant freeze!!! Saturday, November 7 I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about that newspaper subscription... And had my second meltdown. I mean, what were we thinking, giving our credit card to a stranger at the grocery store and giving him our address and mentioning that we were going to be out of town for the next three weeks or so. What idiots!!! Well, after breakfast, I called the Denver paper. Yes, they had our subscription and the guy I talked with wondered about the weird start date. And, yes, they do have people out in front of King Sooper’s selling subscriptions. And, thinking about it, he had an elaborate setup that would have been questioned by the grocery employees at some point if he weren’t legit. Well, I was reassured, but we were still idiots! These days blur together after a while and I’m writing this two weeks later, so I probably won’t get things on the right day... However, I think the big accomplishment this day was getting my office set up. And we loaded all the storage unit stuff into the truck and took it to the storage unit. Along with everyone else in Denver... We probably should have waited until Monday. Oh, well, we got it all situated in the storage unit and still have room left for the rest of the stuff that needs to go into it. Dinner was back at Sweet Tomatoes. Sunday, November 8 Carl went out for the morning paper again and we fixed sweet rolls for breakfast. Have to remember that it’s Sunday, right? The morning was spent mostly on settling stuff. After lunch, we loaded up the plants and the dirty clothes and headed for my sister’s house. Besides an afternoon of visiting, I planned to borrow her washer and dryer... She’ll take care of the plants while we’re in the east again. We had a nice afternoon visit, then all loaded into their car and drove to Old Chicago (they knew where it was) for pizza and a beer. It was a pleasant day and the laundry got done. Monday, November 9 We started the day by running some errands, including setting up our new bank accounts. We also checked out the city fitness center. Very nice! And not too far from the apartment. We ended our running around by stopping at American Furniture to look at twin sized beds. We found two that would do what we want, but the one we preferred may be too tall for the loft area. We took measurements and left. After spending some time in the loft, we decided that the taller one will work just fine. Dinner was back at Sweet Tomatoes again. Tuesday, November 10 Well, it turns out that sticking around to wait for the phone guy was a good thing. The day started with gurgling toilets. The main toilet promptly stopped up. The plunger didn’t help. Then we discovered that the floor around the other toilet was soggy. We called the maintenance emergency line... The maintenance guy was there very quickly. He tried a snake on one toilet and promptly filled up the bottom of the shower stall. He stopped and got the wet vac and cleaned up the mess. He’s calling the plumber... In the meantime, we had two choices - walk up to the clubhouse to use the restrooms there, or turn one of the toilets into a “honey pot”. We wound up using both techniques, depending on the number of people in the apartment at the time... The plumber was on another call, but came by a bit before noon. Naturally, he needed into the crawl space and I had just gotten a file cabinet settled on top of the opening to that... We moved it and he climbed down to look around. I was afraid he’d have a heart attack down there. He was a bit overweight... Turns out the sewer pipes are clay and had tree roots growing into them. He cut those out and the problem is cleared up for now. It took some time, but it got fixed. The large cottonwood in the front yard is probably the culprit. As he was packing up, he mentioned that someone was there to see us. It was the man from Qwest (the phone company). He got the dsl and phone lines set up and we’re in business. I promptly went online with all the computers and got the virus scanning up to date. Things are returning to normal. At least, for a little while... We worked around the apartment the rest of the day. For dinner, we went to BJ’s near Target. We had had lunch there a few days ago and their dinner menu looked interesting. One look at what they had on tap and we know we’ll be back. They have Bottington’s on tap!! And decent food. Wednesday, November 11 The morning was spent working around the house, then we went back to American Furniture to pick up the twin bed. I’m glad we took the truck. The salesman left us with the impression that the mate’s bed portion of the bed needed more assembly than it did. All it needed was the drawer handles attached and attaching to the headboard. It was big and heavy. So, I put in a call to my sister to see if she had any muscle hanging around the house. She came by a bit later with her husband, son, and a friend of the son’s. Between them, we got the bed installed and the mattress put on. And we gave them the tour. Dinner tonight was back at Sweet Tomatoes one last time before leaving for the east again. |