Escape from Retardo Land: Cassini moves out
 

As many of you may know, I've been living in an apartment building run by an uncaring management team, tended to by a lazy maintenance man, and populated by some of the most brainless, inconsiderate people I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. A long time ago this was a pretty nice place to live but it's deteriorated. Well, enough is enough, and as I've mentioned elsewhere, last month I found a better place to live, so effective on the 30th of this month I'm out of here. ;D

I've been packing sporatically for awhile but no serious moving took place until yesterday. My brother showed up late in the morning with his truck and a handcart and we got to work. The weather was fairly good, sunny and cool, bordering on cold. It was also very windy, and it still is, so there was quite a wind chill outside. I'll live with it; it's far better than the 90+ degree heat I usually endure when moving stuff. There's still a great deal to pack up and move but we put a good dent into it. Most of my books are in boxes at the new place, waiting for the bookcases to arrive. I've accumulated a lot of books over the past several years and they weigh a hell of a lot but the heaviest has to be the Dungeons and Dragons collection. Best non-video game ever invented but it's not especially portable. The technical manuals and cookbooks weren't much lighter. Anyway, they've all been moved, as have the bulk of my CD's and DVD's plus a bunch of other items. The last things to go will be my computers, bedding, and the microwave; everything else will go at various times throughout the week. The heaviest items will be reserved for professional movers this Monday; I'll throw my back out if I even think about trying to move that couch by myself. :bloocross:

I can't tell you too much about the new neighborhood at the moment because other than a few stores and such I don't know a great deal about it. It's a very nice area along a major road, it has a few convenience stores nearby including a Walgreens and a 24-hour Sunoco station, more stores further away, and it's greener than my present location. I'll post more details as I learn more, and I'll undoubtably have a photo album of the area on my profile page in the future. What I do know right now is that the moving process is finally underway and I'm going somewhere that is NOT HERE, and that makes me happy, very happy indeed. :frankiesmile:

Hey that's great Cass, Good luck! I've moved more times than I can count since leaving home and it's always the books that break your back, especially the vast numbers I've collected. Them and old fasioned vinyl records. Precious but heavy.

It's good your new area is even greener. That means the air is cleaner too. Looking foward to seeing the pics.

Yes I want to see pictures! Good for you Cass. I hope your new place only has wonderful neighbors.

Glad that your escape has been a successful one, Cass. I've relocated from house to house a few times, and it can be a seriously stressful process, but at the same time, it's always such a thrilling feeling, having a whole new residential canvas upon which to make your own personal mark. Hope that you enjoy exploring and settling in your new environs, and that this new neighbourhood will be a huge improvement over your last. :)

Am happy to hear you escaped from RetardoLand safely. :)

It all sounds awsum, Cass! And it's greener? It does sound like a more up-scale place. I look forward to pics too. :frankiesmile: Hope the rest of the moving process goes smoothly and safely. Only one more week to go, whoo hoo! :clap:

Yay, Cass! I'm glad you get to leave Retardo Land soon. :cheesegrin:

And yes, you must show us pics. :bloogrin:

The area is a bit more upscale and quite photogenic. Pics will be coming, probably sometime in mid to late April, after I've settled in for a bit and had a chance to explore. As for the neighbors, I haven't met a single one of them yet. I'm hoping for wonderful but I'll settle for quiet.

The last of the books were moved today, along with the smallest of my three bookcases, which was the only one that would fit in the back of the truck. Also making the trip this afternoon were the steamer, the breadmaker, and most of the rest of the kitchen appliances, along with all the spun glass figures that I picked up for Frankie for Valentine's Day. Yeah, I went a little crazy this year. :-[ The weather was a little warmer and a little less windy than yesterday and is supposed to continue to improve as the week wears on. I stopped in the nearby Sunoco station for a Pepsi Max when we were done and discovered, much to my delight, that they carry premade sandwiches. These aren't the healthiest things in the world but they're dang convenient, and sometimes that's what matters most. There's also a SubWay in the area and a place that specializes in wings that delivers so I know I won't starve. ;)

Well, it's wonderful to hear that the moving's going well and it sounds like this new place you're going is gonna be a hell of alot better than where you are now.

I am really glad to hear that you're getting closer to finally leaving Retardoland and into a much better neighborhood. :) Whoo-hoo!!

It'll definitely be an improvement. :P

Today was spent doing a little more packing and hiring the movers. Three guys will be arriving Monday to drag Couchzilla and the rest of the big, heavy stuff out of here and into the new place. The price was steep but I'll grin and bear it. Other than that I didn't accomplish much today but I've got a few days left here; should be plenty of time to finish packing and taking care of the rest of the adventure. :)

I lol'd. 8D how big is "Couchzilla"?

Big enough that the moving men are going to be resentful. 8D I don't remember how we managed to get it in here. When it gets to the new place we may need to consider getting it inside via the front window. Very comfy, I'll say that for it; I've sacked out on it for the entire night on several occasions. :)

Congratulations!! :D I know you've had some SERIOUSLY annoying problems with your current establishment so I am super happy to hear you're getting to leave it finally. Hope the move goes smoothly!

So far, so good, although my legs are starting to hurt. :bloocross:

Most of the kitchen and bathroom stuff made the transition today. The things I use everyday stayed here but the rest of the stuff got boxed, loaded into a friend's station wagon, and away it went. Also making the trip today was the hassock, my old computer, and a gallon jar full of coins which will eventually be converted to paper money and get spent at the 2009 Con. ;D

A lot of stuff went into the dumpster today, too. Moving is an excellent excuse to throw away things you never use, and I'm finding a lot of that. I hate throwing anything away - I'm a packrat by nature - but if it lightens the load and makes unpacking and setting up my new place a little quicker and easier, so be it. Some things I will never part with no matter how old and unused it may be but everything else, well, I'm being as ruthless as I can stand. :P

More packing, tossing, and cleaning coming up over the weekend, although I doubt anything will actually get moved due to a lack of transport. Anything that hasn't been moved by Monday will be the moving men's problem. Good luck with that couch, guys. 8D

Yeah we actually had to rent a dumpster when I moved out of my parents' house for good and all, lol. But in the end I left nothing behind so I didn't have to rely on them to give me any of my stuff later on.

The dumpster here is located at the far end of the building. It's not a short walk. :P

I hate throwing out food. Most of what's going is either overloaded with sodium or fat, and a lot of it expired before Foster's premiered, but I still hate to throw it out. Somebody might want to eat it, although with a few of the items it'd be like playing Russian roulette with your health. Who knew a can could swell like that without exploding? I haven't looked in the back of the refridgerator yet but I'm sure there's an old science experiment or two lurking there. :bloocross:

Clothing gets sorted later today. If it doesn't fit, is missing buttons or is the wrong color, out it goes. Kind of short on time now so I don't plan on organizing the contents of the boxes anymore; just throw stuff in, seal it shut, and onto the next batch. Looks like unpacking is going to be an adventure, too. 8D

Hopefully none of those "science experiments" are alive. :eek: 8D

This sounds all too familiar. Yeah, the last bits and pieces that you don't know what to do with, but don't want to throw out get thrown in boxes with other random stuff in the end. And then once you move and start unpacking, you remember one of those random little things and decide it'll be really useful right now. So you scour through all those boxes until you find it. Good luck with that.

So the worst is over with? That's great to know. :) The unpacking part was always fun for me, hope it's an upside to this for you, too. :frankiesmile:

I'm still not done, actually. I'll probably be working on it most of the night, although I think I can see the finish line. When I go to bed for the first time at the new place I expect I will sleep very soundly, and very long. :herrsleep:

I had planned on taking a break from all this a few hours ago to go out and wander the neighborhood one last time but a sudden thunderstorm nixed that idea. I may do it later, now that the rain has stopped. There are a number of local businesses that I'm going to miss, both for their products and their personnel. There are some pretty decent people working around here that I've gotten to know pretty well over the last few years; I'm hoping that the situation in my new area won't be too different. I guess I'll find out soon enough; the moving men will be here in about ten hours. :)

Aah, I thought the moving men had come already. At least you're lucky they're doing most of the lifting. Once all the big stuff is out of the way, I'm usually able to organize what's left of packing easier.

When we were moving from Illinois to Washington, we were in such a hurry we actually hired a moving company to not only load the truck and transport our stuff, but help us pack. I had never done that before, I didn't even know it was availible. I suppose it makes sense though, you can probably pay someone to do pretty much anything now days. It sure helped.

Hooray Cassini! I hope you get better neighbors at your new place. :frankiesmile:

The moving men showed up Monday morning, a little after nine, my brother about 15 minutes before that. Most of my stuff was packed at that point, after a marathon packing session that had lasted about 24 hours. As you might imagine, I was tired and my nerves were beginning to fray. On the plus side it was cold out so there was little chance of heat exhaustion. First time the weather has ever been good for moving day. Anyway, it took them roughly 90 minutes to get everything into the truck and away they went, along with my brother, who's job was to let them into the new place and tell them where to drop stuff. I stayed behind in Retardo Land to pack up some loose odds and ends and to track down Kendell to unlock the basement. There are a number of storage bins down there; one of them was mine and naturally I wanted to get to it. Kendell opened the basement, propped the door open, and let me know. Down I went, and it was then that I discovered that my storage bin had been vandalized. The padlock had been ripped off, stuff was strewn around the bin, a few things were outside of the bin, and, inevitably, some stuff had been stolen. I'm guessing it probably happened around the same time that my mailbox was damaged. This was personal, too; none of the other storage bins had been touched. I told Kendell about it, not that there was any point in doing so. I guess that's what you get when you fail to treat the self-centered shrew down the hall as the center of the universe, refuse to loan your alchohlic neighbors money so they can continue to smoke and drink and occasionally set fire to their apartment, and call the police when the inconsiderate bastards living above you insist on blaring their horrible music at 3:00 in the morning. It's also the inevitable result of having a lazy, useless maintenance worker who takes months to fix a broken door or replace a broken air conditioner, not to mention two weeks to repair a simple mailbox, and a management team that doesn't seem to care. I salvaged what I wanted and opted to abandon the rest for the looters. Soon thereafter my brother returned, we carted the last of my stuff down to the truck, and that was the last I saw of the old place. Of the people I left behind there, there are a few good ones and I wish them well. As for the rest of them, good riddance; they're a horrible bunch of losers and they deserve each other. I won't bother wishing that they rot in hell; in a way, they already are. A hell of their own making.

I'll tell you about the more pleasant place I'm at now at a later date but first, a little something that I've been wanting to say for a very long time, and now it can finally be said:

Cassini has left the building. :frankiesmile:

Whew! So it's officially over! I'm sure that's a relief, and that statement in itself an understatement. I'm so sorry to hear about your storage bin, that really sucks. :terrence: But now comes the fun part- unpacking and setting everything up! :up: Although I know that can be overwhelming too. But it sure beats the horrors of packing, cleaning up and tying up the loose ends before finally being able to say farewell to the old place.

I look forward to pics and all the good details about the new place. :frankiesmile:

Ha, nice!:P

That all sounds like a royal pain in the butt, but at least you're out now, right? Never having to deal with those people again sure sounds quite nice, yeah? Glad to hear you're finally in your new place, and I look forward to hearing more about it.:)

Hey there, congrats on moving out! What did the moving men say at the sight of Couchzilla? :D

They didn't say much, really, but I did hear a fair amount of grunting when they moved it. 8D

I've done some unpacking during the rain and some exploring when it's dry out; I'll write about it tonight sometime, after I'm done digesting lunch. There's a restaurant in the area that specializes in chicken wings; I went a little overboard this afternoon. :bloocross:

Fine, make me post back-to-back. I'll send myself a warning when I'm done. :cheesegrin:

I consider myself officially moved in at this point. Not because I'm done unpacking and setting up, which I'm not, and not because I'm now familiar with the area, because I'm not, although I'm learning fast. No, I consider myself officially moved in because the bills arrived today. Yay. 8D :P

There are a lot of apartment buildings in the area, in a wide variety of sizes and architectural styles. My building is actually a cluster of three smaller buildings built close together. The buildings are done in Tudor style, as are a lot of private homes along the side streets, so in a very nebulous, vicarious way, I've achieved my dream of living in Veronaville. You have to be a Sims 2 player to know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm located just to the west of the Hartford city line; heading east there's a Walgreens and a Sunoco station, and a middle-eastern deli, and then it's on to Hartford. There's a CVS available, which is welcome news, as it means I don't have to transfer my prescriptions to Walgreens. They aren't open 24/7 like the CVS in my old area but a couple of the gas stations are, which should make up for it somewhat. There are plenty of restaurants along the main street, too, including Burger King and SubWay, plus a KFC that is currently undergoing renovation. There are five pizza and grinder shops, one of which makes an exceptionally good tuna grinder and is conveniently the closest of the five. Surprisingly, there seems to be only one Chinese place but it's a good one. There's also a fancy Japanese place, a Mexican place, a high-end Brazillian place, and an Ethiopian place which I'm dying to try. There are a number of non-food shops of various sorts and some small markets but no major supermarkets nearby. My old Stop and Shop is actually a little closer now than it was in my old area, however, so I all I have to do is head south and east for a mile or so to get groceries. A bit of a hike but it's manageable.

West of me there's another pizza place and a small market. After that it's a long walk but eventually you reach West Hartford Center, which is a very nice area indeed, packed with shops of all sorts, most of which are overpriced. A number of very fancy, very pricey restaurants are in that area. To the north of me is little of interest; there'a a park in the area but other than that it's mostly residential. South is another story; I haven't been down that way much but it looks promising. Overall, the area is older than my former area, as you can tell from the building styles, definitely greener, certainly a little quieter. Dang glad I moved here. :frankiesmile:

I'll go with you! :bloogrin:

Tudor style, ah yes, one of the things I love about New England. We just don't see that style of architecture here in the Northwest too often. It sounds nicer with every new detail you share about it. I'm very glad to hear things are going so well! :up:

It sounds marvellous Cass. You must tell us what animals live there too. Photos of plants are always appreciated, well any photos for that matter. You know it makes me think I've been in the same place too long now....

As I mentioned elsewhere, my camera is malfunctioning and needs to be replaced. I had several hundred pictures stored on it; most of them came out fine but the last 70 or so didn't. By a highly irritating coincidence, the date between the last good pic and the unusable pics that followed was two days before moving day. Revolting developement. Most of the unusable pics were of buildings and such, however, and they aren't too likely to have moved much in the past several weeks so as soon as I get a new camera I'll just go out and reshoot them. In the meantime, some of the pics were in good condition, so I thought I'd pass a few of them along.

Ichiban Restaurant:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...90125/NS01.jpg

I haven't dined here yet but their menu looks pretty dang good. The place has a good reputation as well. Not cheap but then again Japanese cuisine seldom is. Next door is one of the two Burger Kings in the area, which is cheap and is slowly killing me.

Across the street from Ichiban:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...90125/NS02.jpg

From the left: A Mi Go Market, Clothiers Warehouse, Monte Alban Mexican Restaurant, Abyssinian Ethiopian Restaurant, Venice Pizza. Like Ichiban, I haven't tried any of these places yet, although Monte Alban is high on my "to do" list. Their menu and Abyssinian's are available online; both are a little pricey but look worth it.

Whitney Pizza:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...90125/NS03.jpg

Best grinders in the area. I particularly like their tuna grinder; the flavor is excellent and they tend to overstuff it, so I'm guaranteed to be full for awhile. They're not expensive and they're open late, too, which considering the odd hours I keep is a definite plus.

The local Sunoco station:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...90125/NS04.jpg

Just down the street from me, open 24/7. Mostly I stop here for snacks and such.

No place like home:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...90125/NS05.jpg

My building. My apartment is on the ground floor, more or less in the middle of the building. The complex consists of three buildings, this one and two more off to the left that are identical. Nice landscaping here; two rabbits, usually seen only at night, inhabit the bushes.

And finally, my apartment:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f1...90125/NS06.jpg

Five rooms plus a porch, decent maintenance service, and no stupid useless neighbors who drink, argue constantly, play loud music, or set fire to things. The room with the air conditioner is my bedroom, where I'm currently sitting in front of my laptop typing this post and trying to decide what to do about lunch. :bloocross:

Enjoy, and as always feel free to comment. :)

Ooh, that's a real pretty place you got there.:)

Nice place! It looks pretty sweet, dude. :)

That's a nice looking brick building! :) It's hard to tell without actually being there and inspecting further, but it might actually go back to the 1920s or so judging by the architecture and moldings. I think that's awesome. :up: Looking forward to more when you get your new toy. :bloogrin:

It looks fine! I'd love to live in such a place one day. Oh, and don't forget to tell us about the restaurants when you visit them. (And will you try and photograph the bunnies? :D)

A nice residence indeed. It has the look of the very best kind of academic accommadation. It is nicely planted too with at least 2 kinds of Hosta and a Rhododendron amongst other things I think.

Beautiful residence Cass! It looks so peaceful; and some of the twon buildings look simple, clean, and not so city-like. To me, leaving "Retardo Land" would be leaving Arizona!:scaryberry:

It's even nicer in person. I was very lucky to find this place.

As I've said before, I envy your botanical knowledge. I can identify food crops and some flowers but that's about it.

I've wanted to ask the landlord about the building's age but I haven't seen him around recently. I looked for a date marker in the foundation but there doesn't seem to be one.

At some point I might start a thread about dining out so we can all share our restaurant experiences. I'm surprised I haven't done so already, given the fun I had writing restaurant reviews at last year's Con. As for bunny pics, I'm planning on picking up a new camera on Friday so you should see a pic or two of them before long. Oh, their names are Roscoe and Lurlene, by the way. :bloocross:

The area does have a couple of problems; not big ones, but noteworthy nonetheless. The first is vagrants. There are more here than there were in my old area, and it's always the same story; they're trying to get home, do I have any spare change for the bus? Seems that a lot of people here don't plan ahead. One guy who saw me coming out of China House wanted to know if I had any meat in that bag that I could spare. No, I don't, and to all of them, don't ask again; whatever it is, the answer will always be no. Buy your drugs with someone else's money and quit bothering me.

The second problem is that most of the stores I like are farther away than the ones in my old area. It's not really a problem right now; they're open late or are open 24/7 in some cases, and I need the exercise anyway, plus travel time is a non-issue. However, during the summer months and in the worst parts of winter it could be a major inconvenience. Walgreens and the Sunoco station pictured above are close by but the stores I like best, where I've gotten to know the people who work there recently, are a good distance to the south of me. Not sure what to do about this yet. :macwor:

One last issue is just me being stupid. As I mentioned earlier, Stop and Shop is closer to me now than when I lived in Retardo Land, just in the opposite direction. Before moving day, the only things of interest between me and Stop and Shop were a movie theater and a few businesses of various sorts. Now, there's a McDonalds directly in my path. A Burger King and Wendy's are in the way, too. By the time I get to Stop and Shop, I'm full. Bad, bad Cassini. 8D :nono: :cheesegrin:

I've noticed more panhandlers and hitch hikers in the Seattle area than any other city I've lived in/near. They can cause some discomfort for sure. There are three regular panhandlers that like to hang out at a busy intersection I need to cross through when going to my side job. T here's an elderly lady who always smiles and waves at everyone. A middle aged man who always has his face half covered by a hoody, and a young man who tries to entertain everyone with a drum set and a harmonica. He's not real good but I got to respect his effort. Although a part of me is suspicious as to how badly they need help and why can't they take better care of themselves, another part wishes I could help if I had more to spare. :P I always groan when I approach the intersection and I see one of them standing there, and the light is red.

The hitch hikers are as bad as I imagine they can be anywhere, they're just more plentiful here than I've seen anywhere else. A lot of times when they see you're not going to slow down, they'll flip you the bird as you're passing. ::) Yeah, that really makes me want to stop and pick them up.

Phoenix is REALLY a bad place for panhandling. And these jerks are agressive too. There have been people that have actually gone to fisticuffs with them. Many of them hang around the Phoenix Public Library (which is a beautiful building), in the parking lot. Not too many hitchhikers, unless you are on the many reservations.