I was getting gas at an Exxon station yesterday and it had a very short list of instructions.
Pump Operation
1. Follow instructions on screen
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Done Gone and Moved
I mentioned just two posts back that we had no heat in our house. About two weeks later, we had a particularly chilly night where the temperature dropped down into the upper forties or so. The next morning, the house was really, really cold and my mother-in-law was developing a nasty sounding cough. We decided this just wasn't going to do and there was an expected cold snap coming in that first week in December.
Olympia and I tackled some immediate house-hunting. That's way easier when you're seeking a rental because getting into a rental doesn't involve the reams of paperwork that buying a house requires. The first house we found that might work was owned by some people that had had to evict their last tenants. Despite looking for a long-term lease (three-and-a-half years, so we won't be faced with moving again until Elizabeth is done with high school,) which normally thrills landlords, these people wanted the rent to be paid by certified check every month, an "escape clause" that would allow them to turn us out after eighteen months if they decided to move back in, and on and on. Our realtor told us she wouldn't let us rent from them after all even if we wanted to.
Another round of looking at options found us another house, this one a single-family home only a mile from where we living, in all the same school districts and a landlord that was smart enough to employ a property management company. Three days after seeing the house, we had a signed 43-month lease. The next day, moving began.
We got out of the other house just in time. Two days after our first night sleeping in the new house, the old one's temperature was below 45 degrees - how far below, I don't know because the thermostat's thermometer didn't go any lower than that.
Moving is an absolute help and I found myself wishing for a version of The Matrix, but without the oppression by machines. I couldn't be happier that it's done.
Olympia and I tackled some immediate house-hunting. That's way easier when you're seeking a rental because getting into a rental doesn't involve the reams of paperwork that buying a house requires. The first house we found that might work was owned by some people that had had to evict their last tenants. Despite looking for a long-term lease (three-and-a-half years, so we won't be faced with moving again until Elizabeth is done with high school,) which normally thrills landlords, these people wanted the rent to be paid by certified check every month, an "escape clause" that would allow them to turn us out after eighteen months if they decided to move back in, and on and on. Our realtor told us she wouldn't let us rent from them after all even if we wanted to.
Another round of looking at options found us another house, this one a single-family home only a mile from where we living, in all the same school districts and a landlord that was smart enough to employ a property management company. Three days after seeing the house, we had a signed 43-month lease. The next day, moving began.
We got out of the other house just in time. Two days after our first night sleeping in the new house, the old one's temperature was below 45 degrees - how far below, I don't know because the thermostat's thermometer didn't go any lower than that.
Moving is an absolute help and I found myself wishing for a version of The Matrix, but without the oppression by machines. I couldn't be happier that it's done.
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