The times, they are a-changin'...
So...Stuff is majorly a-changin'. But in good ways. I think...
For the moment, I'm living alone for the first time in...a long, long time. Like almost 20 years, I guess. Stuff is going on with one of The Mook's kids, so she's living in town with a friend for at least the summer while things (hopefully!) straighten out with him. She'll have to be carting him around down there every day, so it makes no sense to be all the way out here in the boonies. The other kid is living with the kids' dad. Which they both need to be doing. Teenage males need male influence in their lives, and Daddy Dear needs to stop leaning on me and support his own darn kids, since I've been pretty much doing that for almost eight years now, and he's had it easy just paying the ridiculously small child support. Long stories are involved with all of this...but you don't care. Or actually, you might care, but I'm not going into it all. :) So...deal. :)
But anyway, we have moved out of the house we were living in, and I now have a big-for-one-person two bedroom apartment with just me and the cats for at least the summer. It is actually even closer to my work than before. Less than half a mile away as opposed to almost a mile. I can walk to work in about 5 minutes, less if I don't just stroll along. I can live there WAY less expensively than I can in a 3-bedroom house and I don't have to worry about things like lawn maintenance. And it's really quiet where I am. There are four two-bedroom units in the building, two upstairs, two down. I'm in the upper right apartment, and there's a single middle-aged guy in the lower left apartment. There is no one next to me or below me. Of course, that can change at any time, but for now I'm enjoying the peace and quiet. The building backs on to a horse farm, so I'm constantly serenaded by horses. And roosters. But I like that.
I don't have Internet there, and I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to bother with the rigmarole of getting it because I'm now about two blocks away from the library. Which has free Wi-Fi and the speed is way faster than one can get residentially here. Even if I want to use it when the library isn't open, I can just walk over there with my laptop and sit in the little shady park next to the library; the signal is perfectly strong there. It's filtered because it's a library, but so far the only site I use that I can't get on is DeviantArt because of Teh Ebil Pr0nz. ;) However, I can get on the Netflix site and stream stuff with real live boobages and all, so...go figure. ;) Anyway, I'm going to not get Internet at my place, save the ~$50 a month, and see if I can deal. If not, I'll get it later. Maybe more towards the winter, when I won't feel like going out to the library, even though it's so close. ;)
I'm also going mostly car-less. Since I'm so close to work and the weather's consistently nice now, I walk to and from work, so I get about a mile of walking in a day, Monday-Friday. And since I'm blocks away from my bank, the library, the hardware/general store, the laundromat, and the little local grocery, I'm finding I really don't need to drive much at all. The local grocery is more expensive than Walmart down in town, BUT since I'm only feeding me and not four people, I think I will just use the local store. Hate Walmart anyway. :p Anything else I need can be bought locally (I love the little local thrift store!) or, if necessary, online. (Ah, Target.com, how do I love thee? :) ) I bought a funky Japanese commuter bike, and although I haven't ridden it yet, I think it will serve me well when I want to get somewhere quicker than walking. I'm thinking I might even sell my car and, if necessary, buy a cheap one outright to use just for any necessary trip into town. Then I can get rid of car payments and stupidly-high insurance, too.
Yeah, I'm all about really, really simple right now. Life has been complicated for a long while now, what with major RL drama for the past...oh, two years, and me with the menopause-driven depression. It makes me want to chuck everything and just be very simple for a while. So, that's my direction at the moment.
BUT! If anyone finds themselves in the Four Corners area and you need a place to crash, I have a second bedroom with a mattress on the floor. So long as you don't mind cats, come visit. I'll even feed you. ;)
For the moment, I'm living alone for the first time in...a long, long time. Like almost 20 years, I guess. Stuff is going on with one of The Mook's kids, so she's living in town with a friend for at least the summer while things (hopefully!) straighten out with him. She'll have to be carting him around down there every day, so it makes no sense to be all the way out here in the boonies. The other kid is living with the kids' dad. Which they both need to be doing. Teenage males need male influence in their lives, and Daddy Dear needs to stop leaning on me and support his own darn kids, since I've been pretty much doing that for almost eight years now, and he's had it easy just paying the ridiculously small child support. Long stories are involved with all of this...but you don't care. Or actually, you might care, but I'm not going into it all. :) So...deal. :)
But anyway, we have moved out of the house we were living in, and I now have a big-for-one-person two bedroom apartment with just me and the cats for at least the summer. It is actually even closer to my work than before. Less than half a mile away as opposed to almost a mile. I can walk to work in about 5 minutes, less if I don't just stroll along. I can live there WAY less expensively than I can in a 3-bedroom house and I don't have to worry about things like lawn maintenance. And it's really quiet where I am. There are four two-bedroom units in the building, two upstairs, two down. I'm in the upper right apartment, and there's a single middle-aged guy in the lower left apartment. There is no one next to me or below me. Of course, that can change at any time, but for now I'm enjoying the peace and quiet. The building backs on to a horse farm, so I'm constantly serenaded by horses. And roosters. But I like that.
I don't have Internet there, and I'm honestly not sure if I'm going to bother with the rigmarole of getting it because I'm now about two blocks away from the library. Which has free Wi-Fi and the speed is way faster than one can get residentially here. Even if I want to use it when the library isn't open, I can just walk over there with my laptop and sit in the little shady park next to the library; the signal is perfectly strong there. It's filtered because it's a library, but so far the only site I use that I can't get on is DeviantArt because of Teh Ebil Pr0nz. ;) However, I can get on the Netflix site and stream stuff with real live boobages and all, so...go figure. ;) Anyway, I'm going to not get Internet at my place, save the ~$50 a month, and see if I can deal. If not, I'll get it later. Maybe more towards the winter, when I won't feel like going out to the library, even though it's so close. ;)
I'm also going mostly car-less. Since I'm so close to work and the weather's consistently nice now, I walk to and from work, so I get about a mile of walking in a day, Monday-Friday. And since I'm blocks away from my bank, the library, the hardware/general store, the laundromat, and the little local grocery, I'm finding I really don't need to drive much at all. The local grocery is more expensive than Walmart down in town, BUT since I'm only feeding me and not four people, I think I will just use the local store. Hate Walmart anyway. :p Anything else I need can be bought locally (I love the little local thrift store!) or, if necessary, online. (Ah, Target.com, how do I love thee? :) ) I bought a funky Japanese commuter bike, and although I haven't ridden it yet, I think it will serve me well when I want to get somewhere quicker than walking. I'm thinking I might even sell my car and, if necessary, buy a cheap one outright to use just for any necessary trip into town. Then I can get rid of car payments and stupidly-high insurance, too.
Yeah, I'm all about really, really simple right now. Life has been complicated for a long while now, what with major RL drama for the past...oh, two years, and me with the menopause-driven depression. It makes me want to chuck everything and just be very simple for a while. So, that's my direction at the moment.
BUT! If anyone finds themselves in the Four Corners area and you need a place to crash, I have a second bedroom with a mattress on the floor. So long as you don't mind cats, come visit. I'll even feed you. ;)