December 2005 Archives

Our friend and former high school classmate Michele organized a mini-reunion of sorts at the Original Pizzeria in Montrose. For ex-patriots, it's in Dr. Grace's old house/office next to what used to be the Acme. Michele, Brendan and Michelle happened to be in town already, Katina and her family came up from the Scranton area, Trina drove down from near Ithaca, and we stopped to pick up Dan on the back way in from Vestal. We had a chance to visit with Dan's mom a bit while he showered, then made it into Montrose only a few minutes late.

It was great to see everyone, and to catch up on what they're doing. Sophie also enjoyed finally meeting Nicholas, and getting to hang out with someone her age; there was lots of staring going on at the table between the two of them.

Thanks to Michele for putting it all together, and to everyone else for showing up! Hopefully we can do that some more.

Brandie got a call from the storage unit today, and sadly this is just typical of our experiences this fall: our credit card had supposedly been denied several weeks ago, and they were just calling now to tell us of the late fee that had been accumulating since. Of course the fellow was curt and unhelpful over the phone when Brandie asked questions about the problem.

Our credit card company knew nothing of the situation however, no charge had been attempted the day the storage unit claimed. It turns out the storage unit's card machine had a system server error, and never bothered to try our card again; they just started racking up a late fee for us. Fortunately the storage unit company dropped the late fee when this was discovered, but come on, people!

Also an update on the situation in Kingston: we ended up hiring that lawyer our realtor recommended after she called him back and straightened him out, he apologized. He then sent a very reasonable letter to the sub-landlord that she never replied to. We appealed to the actual owner and real landlord to talk to his tenant, again no reply. We hired a building inspector and found out the house isn't registered with the state and therefore isn't a legal unit. It also has a list of violations:

1) gap in wall between two bedrooms must be repaired
2) smoke detectors must be installed in all bedrooms
3) a carbon monoxide detector must be installed
4) peeling paint must be scraped and repainted
5) inoperable windows must be repaired
6) exposed wiring must be repaired

The owner is going to be fined $150/mo now until they're all resolved.

We also found out that the sub-landlord had originally tried to sue her landlord to get out of her lease, which ran contrary to the story she told us (she wanted to buy it, and he wouldn't sell.) They apparently didn't have a good relationship either.

As promised, here are pictures of the 10" of snow we got and the tractor at work removing it. School was canceled so Dan is happy. Sophie apparently has another ear infection so she is not.

We thought it would be fun to do a little compare/contrast about some of the differences we've observed between our life here (such as it is) and life back in California. Mostly for our own benefit to look back on someday, but we thought you might find it amusing too.

Well for starters, and this is pretty obvious, it was 11 degrees this morning. By noon it had warmed up to a balmy 24. Surprisingly, it's not bad with a little sun and no wind; it's surprising how quickly your perspective changes. I remember though how quickly our winter visitors would adjust to the climate in Petaluma, and complain about it being 'cold' only a day or two after stepping off the plane from single-digit temperatures.

Tonight we're expecting snow, up to 10" by tomorrow afternoon. Dan is hoping school will be canceled, and I'll get to use the giant tractor again to plow the driveway. I'll try to get pictures, it's very impressive.

You can also see in the picture above what we'll be using to clear off the car after the storm. Of course I remember getting by in high school with a little handheld scraper (and Brandie always just used her driver's license), but this was on sale at Sam's Club and is nice for clearing snow off the hood and roof. I think the police would have pulled me over if they saw this in the back of my car in Petaluma.

Today we went for a walk in the woods and field behind the house, and managed to avoid getting shot at by any hunters. It was beautiful, a great day for a walk outside. It was cold enough that the snow on the ground was still in very large flakes, but sunny enough that it all sparkled brilliantly. We really enjoyed getting out, although by law we should have been wearing orange for safety. We'll have to buy some to wear for our next hike, as muzzleloading season doesn't end until the 19th. Eula should have a bandana too.