I Drove, darnit

Ok, ok, it was only from the street out front, around the corner and into the parking lot...two right turns, no traffic. I also got the front door open. I don't know why it's so heavy. It looks like a regular door, but I need to throw my weight on it to open it, and right now I don't have a lot of that. I lost 10 pounds in the hospital, so I'm a skinny 146. Pulling it open (after unlocking it) from the outside is more difficult, because I must pull really hard. I can get it open enough to get my knee in there, and then I can leverage it open.

The security door entry to the apartments

My daughter put in an application for one of the apartments in the second building (on the corner) that will be open September 1st. We are waiting to hear from the landlady, because when the application was given to my daughter last month the price was $10 more than what we are paying, but now we hear the landlady wants to raise it up by $30. The reason...there is a third identical building that she doesn't own and she found out from someone the residents are paying $35 more per month than what she is charging right now.

It's probably still a good deal though, because heat is included, and so is water, sewer and garbage. We only pay electric. The stove is gas, so we don't even pay to cook our food. The buildings are well-lit and each building has locked entry. And they are clean. Cheap, but clean. The floors creak but the bathroom is newly tiled and sparkling clean. The cabinets in the kitchen look like a weekend plywood project and the kitchen is way too tiny and has no dishwasher, but the stove is new. All this for under $600 per month. A luxury apartment costs about $900 and they usually don't include heat. We have no idea how much it costs to heat an apartment here.

Hubby's job is going well. He is a hard worker, which has been noticed by the supervisors here and in Sussex. When there is no work here in Hartford, hubby signs up for the plant in Sussex, about half an hour south. They are always happy to have him. He hasn't had any difficulty with breaks or with time to eat. His cousin's friend recently went from Finishing to Pressing. He likes it. If a person signs up to run the presses they cannot go back to Finishing. It's a bit more money but also longer stretches when you cannot leave the machine unattended. You better be darn sure you want to be a pressman. A lot of people shy away from running the presses for that reason, so Pressmen are always in demand, and always have steady work. Apparently the printing presses usually stop after several hours for mechanical reasons and then the pressmen get a break. I told hubby think long and hard and don't make any snap decisions. 12 hour shifts are long, no matter what part of the plant you are working in.

By the way, if you get a catalog in the mail, or some other circular or flier, there's a good chance it was printed by the company where my hubby works.

I see my surgeon Wednesday. I'm looking forward to hearing what she has to say about the next steps to my recovery. I've already been taking my brace off at home. It's hot and it drives me crazy.

The weather has been good. We like it. We have warm days (usually in the low to mid 80's) and cool days (usually in the 60's or 70's). It cools off at night. Saturday was hot (in the upper 80's and humid) so we put the A/C on. It cooled off that night, so it was a one-day deal. I keep the windows open almost all the time. The air is fresh.