A Drum, Of All Things, and More

 We were both mesmerized by the sound of the panda drum. Hubby said I should buy one. I told him they were on sale. I thought about it, and some time later I decided to order one. So this is what we got:

15 inch tongue drum, D Major, 432 Hz (meditative)

Rubber tipped mallets come with little crochet covers for a softer sound

Hand tuned (see extra cuts)

Hubby was pleasantly surprised but hasn't played it much. Me...I play (tap around) every day, several times a day. It has a play by number song book but I have not tried to play any songs yet. I really love how it sounds. Maybe some day I will get another, different one, for variety.

So, what else is going on? Well, we have been wanting an SUV for some time, and with the high mileage on the truck, we finally decided it was time.

My daughter and her hubby are coming for a visit next month! Looking forward to that.

That's about all for tonight.

Things Are Looking Up, Except For Unpacking

The old apartment has been rented, starting November 1st. That's a big deal because that gets us off the hook for the rent and the utilities (because we broke the lease). 

We took our first good walk since moving. It was very enjoyable. We climbed a hill and followed a path to the 5G tower. From there we could look across town. Next time we will walk in the other direction. The area is quite large, all property of Ripon College. 

Then we stopped by Green Lake to watch the sun set. 

Green Lake is Wisconsin's deepest natural inland lake. It has two temperature layers, supporting both warm water and cold water species of fish. Lately it has been struggling with fertilizer runoff which causes mucky algae in shallow areas. They are trying to remedy that. In contrast, Lake Winnebago, which is bordered by the Fox Cities (Neenah, Menasha, Oshkosh and Fond du Lac), is shallow and brackish, covered in green all summer, and is unsafe to swim in.

Typical summertime Lake Winnebago

  I have a doctor appointment next month, an eye exam next month, and a dental appointment next week all in town and easy to drive to. No more Appleton nightmare traffic!

The local grocery stores are a bit expensive but we shop them when needed. On weekends (when needed) we drive to either Berlin or Fond du Lac to stock up.

I have unpacked kitchen stuff. I have hung up clothes. I have unpacked the bathroom stuff. I cannot unpack anything else. There is no linen closet. There is no utility closet. I have no extra shelves because I'm using them for my plants. Because the windows are a different height, I cannot use any previous configurations. Until I get shelves I cannot unpack the bins. Because everything is in bins I can't find anything half the time. Then I just get sad and frustrated and give up.

I wanted to hang pictures. The lease says I can't put nails in the walls. I asked for clarification. They don't want nail holes because "then they need to patch and paint". Ridiculous. Never had to paint after filling a tiny nail hole. Besides, the walls in this place are full of patches and even a few nail holes that were just painted over without filling.

There were some other issues the new maintenance man fixed. The old maintenance man mostly fixed nothing. We replaced the toilet seat ourselves (before the new maintenance man was hired). They reimbursed us.

Two of my plants have died. One was on its way out for a long time. The other was probably my fault.

Hubby is flying to Europe in December and I will be staying with my daughter in Indiana. Looking forward to that.

I never found my pan lids. 

That's all for now.

Unpacking

 We took possession of the apartment August 30 and completed our move September 13th. We went back last Sunday to clean. I hired a young couple to clean. My back couldn't take anymore. They only wanted $100. We brought soda and tips. They were super happy and did a good job.

Our backs are sore. Hubby hauled all my plants upstairs. I tucked most of the rocks into the bins so the movers hauled them up. They were little rocks.

Unpacking in this new apartment is a challenge. There is No Storage. Literally. I am becoming more creative at figuring out where to put things. 

I have lost my pan lids. Not the pans, I have the ones I didn't loose in the last move (the ones I lost never turned up). I have two lids that I use to cover my frying pans. I cannot find them. What is it about moving and my darn pans?

In spite of the challenges with the apartment, both of us feel at home here. There are rolling hills and woods that are not swamps. The traffic is light and easy to drive in, unlike the total chaotic mess in Appleton. We are closer to the things we left behind when we moved in January. 

There are Black Walnut trees all over town. There is one next to our apartment. It drops nuts on the driveway. When cars drive over them they crack. We had rain and some wind the other day and the driveway sounded like popcorn. With all the hardwood trees around, the chance of me seeing a Luna Moth next spring might be good.

Hubby's job is going well. He won a vacuum at the employee appreciation day picnic.

I'll write more later. I'm getting tired. Here are some pictures:

Ripon at night

Plants on the balcony

Lithops bloom

College football practice just across the road

The vacuum hubby won

We're Moving to Ripon!

We got the apartment! Now all the legal stuff needs to be completed and then we can pick up the keys.

7 minutes from my hubby's work, a quarter mile from walking trails, cute town, union job, and a pretty good view.

View from the balcony

Big area for my plants in the living area

Kitchen

Mini blinds! Not the vertical murder blinds!

Brand new water heater

New washer and dryer

 

It's Nice!

 We saw the apartment today, 2 bedroom upper, clean, washer and dryer are new, A/C is new, water heater is new, and there is a view. I am trying to be level headed and controlled because we still need to submit our applications. Our credit scores are good, background checks spotless, but still, until that lease is in hand, we are waiting to celebrate.

I have been dreaming of a place like this. There are a couple of trees that block little bits of the view, but it seems good. Two windows face west (for my plants) and one bedroom window faces north. Storage is a little tight but I'm going through stuff again. Papers can go, stuff I don't use anymore and don't need to keep can go, and some of my rocks can go. I mean, how many rocks do I really need 🤭. 

It's also in a quiet area (although we can watch college soccer ⚽️ 😅 from the balcony), and it's 7 minutes from hubby's work. The maintenance guy said two other people from the same company also live there.

Fingers crossed and prayers we are accepted 🙏 

No pictures until we are approved. 

Apartment Hunting

 We are going to look at an apartment on Saturday. The location is good, facing the road and looking out over the fields with a clear view of the sky. The area is quiet. However, it's in the same building that we looked at before. The apartment we saw was dirty, and the refrigerator was old and very small. There is no way we can be sure if the apartment we will see Saturday is just as bad, or worse. If so, slum lord comes to mind. If this one is ok, it will be available the end of September, and since it's not listed in the paper or on any apps, we would be certain to get it, pending approval, of course.

If it's not good, things will be more difficult. We might be able to get into this place, if we are lucky.

Stanton Street Estates are in high demand. They are across the street from my hubby's work. They are also busy. Families with kids and pets gather on the lawn around the pond. I would be fine with the other side, even though those apartments face the garages. I am hoping it is possible to see over them well enough from the second floor. One came up as available but before I had enough of hubby's employment history, so I was unable to apply.

 

Hubby's work on the left and to the right, the 5 buildings that make up the apartment complex.

Hubby's 40 mile drive is easy when he leaves at 3 am but absolutely terrible when coming home. There is construction everywhere on the expressways, with congestion and sometimes accidents.

I have begun to pack. Not so hard this time, because I hardly unpacked.

My husband hasn't stopped talking about his new job. He has a great teacher, and is learning a skill he never thought he could do, and he enjoys the job. The company is big, with a large variety of jobs, and they are union. People are friendly.

Below, a picture of the Patina Vie building in downtown Ripon. Looking forward to moving there.

My blood sugar is normal, finally. I'm pretty sure it was stress. 

TRIGGER WARNING. If medical stuff grosses you out....just to let you know, the post gets weird.

Speaking of blood sugar, my insurance sent me a home test kit for kidney health and A1C. I was a bit surprised. The urine part was easy. The sample ended up in a self-filling test tube.

How the sample gets into the test tube

The A1C part was a "whole nother ballgame". I was nervous. I've been testing my glucose for years with lancets that only need to draw a dot of blood. This thing needed to make 5 or 6 drops pour out. 

The whole time I was talking myself into doing this I kept thinking, they really expect me to jam this thing into my finger? I was really nervous.

Finally I anchored my finger on the coffee table and pressed that darn lancet into it. Nothing. Press harder. Harder. *CLICK* It was over. Didn't hurt as much as I thought. I had trouble getting the drops into the cassette. Finally I completed the dastardly deed and packed everything up and dropped the package off at UPS. My finger has a slit in it. I just removed a band-aid, which makes my finger look irritated. Was a bit sore, later a faint bruise. It's all good now, just a little tender.

I'm still weirded out by the fact that my insurance sent me this, given the stress I experienced building up the courage to stab my finger with a knife-shaped lancet. They have partnered with Everlywell. You can check out their website here Everlywell

It's been hot and humid, everywhere in the Midwest. Today we had some rain. Green Bay had a tornado warning. I didn't hear any more, so maybe it was just stormy with wind.

Nope. Don't Need These. Yay!

The Boswellia gave me nosebleeds!

I haven't needed the Omeprazole for months. It took over a month to wean myself off of it. My doctor had prescribed it a few years ago for Gerd, and I just kept taking it. Any time I tried to stop, the heartburn came raging back.

Eventually, after giving up most carbs, the heartburn lessened enough for me to try getting off of it. I used Famotidine as my crutch, and was finally able to eliminate that. The only time I need to take one is after I eat butter late in the day.

 

I just happen to have a lot of them. Oh well....

We Spent The Day In Ripon

The drive isn't difficult, but it's 40 miles from where we are now, that's 80 miles round trip for hubby when he starts work next month. We decided to make a fact-finding mission to check out apartments, the grocery store, etc. 

The downtown area is very walkable and has tons of local businesses. It is charming. It has not fallen into decay like some other cities we have visited, such as Stevens Point and Sheboygan, where the downtown businesses left and the storefronts are filled with tattoo shops and arcades. 

Ripon is charming, friendly and happy. It's easy to drive around in, no crazy expressways. They have hills! That makes me extremely happy. There is a hospital in town, plus every other service we might need. The grocery store is Hy-Vee. It's pretty good. The prices are almost the same as Walmart. There is no Walmart, which I imagine is part of the reason the town is so vibrant. The Walmart and Aldi stores in Fond Du Lac are only about 20 miles to the east, making them an easy once a month stock-up trip.

What we need is an apartment. Our fact-finding mission came up short. There are apartments there, but with a wait list, or nothing available, or just for seniors, or income restricted, or too cheap (dumpy), and one "maybe". We hope to be able to find something by October. We will be paying for two apartments until the end of the year. We could break the lease, but we would still need to pay the rent here until it had a new tenant. Because of the stupid walk-in whirlpool tub in the bathroom, this place stood vacant for a year until we came along. We took it because we couldn't find anything else in January.

This is the only picture I took, maybe because I was too busy taking notes.

Very similar to where we live now. The only available apartment was downstairs, like we have now. It had not been cleaned. There was dust everywhere. The older gentleman who showed us around is also the maintenance man. What I noticed is that the upper apartments have that extra big window in the living room. The apartment building we are in now also has the extra window upstairs. 

For some reason only some new apartments have the extra window, many are built with a big storage area there instead. In any case, none of the new apartments have any vacancies. One has a wait list into next year. Another doesn't use a wait list, after applying and getting approved, one must call, text or email and ask if there is a vacancy coming up. It's first come, first serve, and there are over 100 applicants waiting to jump in.

Anyway, back to the apartment above. It has mini blinds (that open upward instead of murder blinds like here.) The area seems quiet, although there is a soccer field across the street. Other than the soccer field, there are just fields and tree-covered hills in the distance. Might be peaceful, except when they have a soccer game. The school year could be a mess of lights, noise and traffic. Below is a screen shot of the street side.

There are a few apartments downtown, upstairs in those ornate, historical buildings. I only found one listing, and all of the apartments are studio or one bedroom, nice but tiny, and no balcony.

We really need to find something by October.

Job Offer Accepted!!

 We are moving to Ripon as soon as we can, maybe not till fall because of our lease! Hubby got a good paying job there!!

The Cute Town of Ripon

We found a cute town, friendly people and really great coffee. Not sure how to pronounce Ripon.

Flowers everywhere!

The tin ceiling in the coffee shop. They also have great coffee! 

Drug store, Radio Shack and Ben Franklin signs. 

Actual Radio Shack items! I thought they were out of business

We stopped by Wild Rose to fill up jugs of spring water.  Although many people drink it, I only use it for my plants. We got 9 gallons this time.