My first weekend ...

My first weekend in my new place was not quite what I expected.

I decided to take the Cambria route (Highway 46) over to Highway 1 instead of the usual Morro Bay route (Highway 41). According to one of the mapping sites, this way had less miles. The road was much wider, with less curves, but reached a higher altitude at the peak. When I reached Highway 1 it was nice to see the ocean on my right as I drove south, a flock of about 50 pelicans soaring over the ocean. I still had a frisson of anticipation when I saw the three power stacks, but this time it was nice to also see the North side of Morro Rock. As it turns out, however, this route seemed to add about 10 minutes to my trip. I don't know how that could be, because I was driving about the same speed without all the curves. Perhaps the route takes you a bit north before it goes south? [I discovered later that I missed a crucial step in the directions, to take Old Creek Rd. off of 46 over to Cayucos on 1]

Anyway, I was all excited and checked my P.O. Box first thing. I was surprised to see how much mail had accumulated in my new box in one week!! I figured that somehow I had gotten on a mailing list. As it turned out, I had gotten several former box owner's mail, including two different businesses and three different people!! And to make matters worse my box-neighbor's last name is only one letter different from mine, which means I will be getting her mail and she will be getting mine. I took the stack of mail up to the counter and asked them to only deliver to my last name. I was told that if catalogs come with "or current resident" on them they are required to deliver them. I indicated that I would only be getting my mail once a week and I was worried that my box would fill up. Apparently there is nothing they can do about that, but they will put a note to only deliver mail with my last name. We'll see how that works out ...

So then I go to my new place, which is behind someone's house, and there is someone parked in the driveway so that I can't get to my parking area in the back. I parked on the street and waited for the property manager who said she would be there at 12:45 (it was now 1:05). Finally, the person in the driveway left and I drove down the driveway to the back house. My next surprise is that I will be having a tough time with the parking, I drive an SUV!! I am quite spatially challenged and so I anticipated problems parking, but it was much easier to pull in than to back out. I saw that I wasn't the only one with parking issues, the car for the front house had a scrape on her back bumper and the side of the house has been torn off and repaired. This will be interesting ...

So the property manager finally gets there to give me the keys and we go inside to check out how the painters did. They did a fantastic job, if you don't count the drips of white paint that had dropped on the carpet throughout the place!! They had done their best to clean up the drips, but you can definitely see them. Another good thing is that the previous tenant has apparently left her washer and dryer. We check out the water damaged area in the bathroom and found that it had been repaired. The last time we had looked at the place, the refrigerator and oven were obviously not cleaned. I opened the refrigerator and saw that it hadn't been cleaned yet. The property manager told me that if I cleaned it I wouldn't have to clean it when I left. I agreed that was fair, got the keys and started to move my stuff in!!

I stopped by the local "dollar" store to get cleaning supplies & a shower curtain and I went shopping for the first batch of food, deciding that I would only allow healthy food into my new house. When I got back, I spent a couple of hours cleaning the refrigerator. I used a large portion of the cleaning wipes and paper towels to clean out the refrigerator. I took before and after pictures so that I would have proof of the condition upon move-in. Once I loaded the food into the newly-cleaned refrigerator, I opened up the cupboards and was unpleasantly surprised by the lack of cleaning that the former tenant did!! They were not even wiped down. I decided that it was too late that night to start the cleaning process and decided to set up my computer table instead. It went together pretty easily and it turned out being height-adjustable so that I left off the wheels and set it at the medium height. I think it will work out fine.

The next morning the cable guy came over and set me up with Charter. I am one of those old-fashioned people who still uses VHS to tape shows to watch later. I often need to tape a show on a different channel than I am watching, so I usually can't go with the "digital" options. However, I had no choice but to get a digital box, but the gal who set me up with my bundle on the phone indicated that I can bypass the box if I wanted. Luckily, the guy who came to set me up told me the same thing and even showed me how to do it. I thought it was ironic that right before he came over I hauled out my laptop and there are a couple of neighbors who have open wireless networks. I had assumed that I wouldn't have any wireless and so I didn't take out my laptop earlier. He got my desktop all set up and I will bring my wireless router down later. Charter gives their people 10 email addresses, so I will sign up for those later. I hope all the ones I want aren't already taken. I really like the digital features on Charter. There are free movies that you can watch, and even fast-forward through, and the music channels are the best. I will try and use the digital box, except when I need to tape something while I am watching something else. The cable guy told me about a short cut off of highway 46 that will drop me into Cayucos on highway 1, he says that is the way he goes.

After I finished up with the cable guy I did some shopping for miscellaneous stuff (more cleaning wipes, oven cleaner, baking soda, VHS tape) and then met with the guy who was in my job before me. I wanted to pick his brain about the site and the work. I feel good about starting up in August, and when I am down next weekend he will show me the office. We ate at a great restaurant at the State Park Marina, The Bayside Cafe. [See the separate review for this restaurant] After lunch I headed back home to do laundry and clean up the kitchen before I started unpacking the kitchen stuff.

I have never had laundry on-site before, so I used my judgment. I looked at the back of the washer and saw that there was a loose water hose. I ran the water from the side of the house until it ran clear and then hooked up the washer's hose to the spigot. I figured the water needed to be turned on, so I opened the faucet. The water filled the washer's hose and seemed to stop flowing. So far so good, I thought. I then opened up the washer to find that it was full of dead bugs and leaves. At least it didn't smell like mildew, I thought. I wiped out the inside and decided to run it through an empty cycle to clean it up a bit. I added some of the Tide for cold water washing and started the washer. It is on a palette, but it apparently is unbalanced because during the spin cycle it rocked. What a racket!! I will have to work on that problem. The dryer works fine. I did a couple loads of laundry while I cleaned out the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen.

It took me several hours to clean out the cupboards and drawers. I finished off one package of cleaning wipes, started another, and almost used up all the paper towels on the roll. I was dismayed to find bug bombs and mouse killing packets under the sink!! That explains my bug bites. I will have to do another bomb next weekend before I move my stuff in. I may even call the property managers to do this ahead of time. The previous tenant did not do anything but remove their stuff from the cupboards and drawers. Again, I took before and after shots of the cupboards and drawers. I finished with a damp sponge wipe-down and left them to dry overnight. I will save the floors, counters, and oven for another time.

After cleaning up the kitchen I felt like I needed a reward. I decided to see "Batman : The Dark Knight" at the small theater in town. It was packed, literally!! Everyone who came in exclaimed that it was so crowded, so I don't think this happens often. It was nice, everyone seemed to know each other and were catching up before and after the movie. I didn't like that someone brought a little 4-year old to see this movie, though. Overall, it was mostly young adults and middle-aged people, though. [See separate review of the Bay Theatre]

The next morning I unpacked my kitchen stuff. It was fun deciding where to put everything. I may change my mind next weekend, but I think I made good placement decisions. One problem, though, is that my stemware is too tall to fit on the shelves!! I will have to check out some housewares stores to find a separate stemware-hanging wine rack or something like that. I also decided that I will have to downsize on my Tupperware. I really don't need all that I have and will store the duplicate pieces. I will have to downsize my other items, as well, from 12 to 8 in the sets. I don't want to overcrowd my shelves.

After I unpacked I measured some pertinent places in the house and then showered and hit the road. I tried the 46 route again and, again, was 10 minutes over my normal time. It looks like 41 is the route to take, despite all the curves and braking!! [See above for an explanation of why it took longer]