No place like home

Good morning friends. Sorry I haven't been posting here in the last few days. I've had to work some but mostly I've been absent because I'm doing something entirely novel. I'm actually moving into this new apartment - as in unpacking. I'm also spending a inordinate amount of time wandering around looking for my keys and glasses. The orientation is so different here, that I have to retrain my ingrained patterns from the last place. I haven't established a place to keep things yet and I find myself turning in the wrong direction when I make coffee in the morning. The place is deceivingly big. It takes a long time to walk around the periphery and in some ways it actually has more useable space than the old place that was hundreds of square feet bigger.

But I'm settling in slowly. It's a long process because everything I own has to be detoxed from the mold and I have a lot of storage space so it's taking a while to figure out what makes sense. I also keep forgetting where I put the few things I've stored temporarily. I never used the cabinets at the old place so it's like relearning the whole storage process again.

Overall I'm liking the place a lot. First and foremost it's lovely not to be assaulted by the dampness when I walk in and the light and the air exchange is surprisingly good considering it only has windows across the front. The place is surprisingly comfortable temperature wise. I've been through a couple of really hot days and now going through a couple of cold days and I haven't had to turn on the heat or the AC yet.

I sort of miss being able to walk to the convenience store but there's plenty of opportunities to walk around the complex and I'm certainly getting more exercise already just from having to walk up the stairs to get into the place. I was a little worried that would be cumbersome, especially bringing home groceries but it hasn't been that bad and it's worth the tradeoff for the better view.

The only thing I seem to really miss are the birds that used to hang outside of my window while I was working at the computer. I don't really see that many here but there's certainly plenty of them around. The place is surrounded by woods so you can hear the cacophony of competing songs in the mornings. And I love being able to see the moon and the stars from the deck. I didn't have a good view of the sky at the old place.

Overall, I'd say I'm happy enough and I think I'm going to like it here. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the neighbor rundown. I'm starting to figure out who's who around here.