Escape from Retardo Land: Cassini moves out

[Lynnie]

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.

[Frankie_Foster]

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

[Cassini90125]

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.

[Lynnie]

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. But now comes the fun part- unpacking and setting everything 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.

[Imaginary Light]

Originally Posted by Cassini90125

Cassini has left the building.

Ha, nice!

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.

[Fomalhaut]

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

[Cassini90125]

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

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.

[Cassini90125]

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

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.

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.

[Lynnie]

Originally Posted by Cassini90125

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.

I'll go with you!

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!

[koosie]

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....