First Weekend Of Moving

The afternoon view from my new
apartment...  Looking north.

Well, it's Sunday night, and this ends the first weekend of moving to my new apartment...

Some ups, some downs...  Some stuff that's cool and some that isn't...

I started off yesterday morning with the goal of bringing over enough stuff that I could spend last night in the new apartment and get up this morning for breakfast and a shower and all that.  That was how I prioritized what's gotta go.

I used my biggest Oakley backpack and a tote bag.  Most of the trips I tried to pack the heaviest things in the backpack, since it's easier to carry with weight, and bulky, but lighter stuff in the tote bag.  And for the most part that worked quite well.

The hardest part of each trip was getting up the subway steps at 9th Street and then walking uphill on 9th Street to 5th Avenue.  After the stairs, the uphill was killer.  If the light was red, I'd get a short moment to stop and catch my breath at the corner of 9th Street and 5th Avenue.  And once there, the remaining walk wasn't far.  At least the new building has an elevator.  I may not always use it, but for carrying stuff, it's useful.

After I stopped for lunch yesterday, though, I started to get diarrhea.  I'm not sure it was lunch, or if that was just a catalyst.  I'd eaten Indian food from a street vendor on Friday night in Manhattan, so maybe that could've been what was truly not agreeing with me.  I don't know.

But after the first round of diarrhea in the new apartment, I found out something not so hot...  There's no hot water...  The water heater is simply not working...  Uh oh...

Around 11pm, at the end of my last trip, I ran into the building superintendent in the lobby and told him "garam pani nehi" which he didn't understand, so then I thought more about it and switched to the appropriate Spanish, though possibly not grammatically correct, "no agua caliente".

He came up and checked it out, then called someone on his cell phone and spoke in rapid fire Spanish, then handed the phone to me.  It was Jones, whoever Jones is, and he said he'd try to get a mechanic to come today to look at it.  I told him I'd be in and out, and might not be accessible on my cell when I'm in the subway, so he said "then we can do it on Monday."  I told him better to do it Sunday, so I can get a hot shower before work on Monday morning.

One thing I discovered at night was there's no light in the bedroom.  There's a switch, but no light fixtures anywhere...  I hadn't noticed that before...  I guess I'll have to pick up a floor lamp of some kind. The switch is probably for one of the outlets.  The living room is the same way, no lights, although it's a single room with the dining area, where there is one.  On the other hand, I like dark and walking around the apartment in the dark.

I slept in the new place on an inflatable mattress that wasn't very comfortable, but I was exhausted...

In the morning I got up early enough and figured I'd dash over to the old place for a shower and the first trip before my morning call with Leena.

That worked.  For the call I sat on the window sill of the new apartment, watching the view out the window.  It's also the place with the least echo in the empty room...

Then I got on the phone to switch over the electricity to my name, followed by the gas.  Only the gas company wasn't doing that on Sundays.  I got through, followed all their voice menus and everything only to get a live person who said I'd have to call back tomorrow.

Then I called the one contact I have for the new apartment and he said the cold water was because I hadn't yet switched the gas to my name, so the gas company locked it.  A reasonable explanation, though I wish he'd have told me in advance.  And it doesn't explain why the stove has gas.

So, my next trip I figured I'd bring back my biggest cookpot.  That way tomorrow morning I can use one of the skills I picked up in India.  I'll heat a pot of water on the stove and use a cup to shower with warm water in the bathtub.  I've done it before, lots of times, so I can do it...

I took a lunch break and walked around Park Slope looking for something to eat.  Some places look good, but on a sunny Sunday afternoon in a trendy neighborhood they were all crowded, with people waiting outside for tables.  I ended up back at a sushi place I'd been to before and had a tasty tuna platter.

Then after another trip I simply fell asleep on the bed for an hour and a half in the new apartment.

Now it's about bedtime...