Condo concerns...

I did quite a horrible job of keeping this blog up-to-date in July... I'll have to do a better job in August...

Wait -- it's August?? These "year" things always seem to run away from me so quickly. Although I'm rather looking forward to fall this year, so I can't complain about the fact that we're heading into the end of summer...

So there have been a few things I've had to get used to in regards to living in a condo as opposed to a house. Like making use of a much smaller kitchen... and taking my garbage out to the chute in the hallway, instead of out to the can in the garage... and being responsible for water from the washer and the shower that leaks into the almost-renovated condo downstairs. I mentioned the horrible paint/varnish smell that was wending its way through air vents into my place last week. We have one vent in particular, above the cabinets in the kitchen, that seems to be directly connected the the condo downstairs. And after about three days of keeping my balcony door open all day (in close-to-100 degree heat...), and waking up to the smell of varnish every morning, I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore. I found a vent-sized piece of cardboard, climbed up on my kitchen counter, and, with the help of a Swiffer duster handle (because even standing on the counter I couldn't quite reach the vent -- we have really high ceilings...), managed to tape the cardboard over the vent. The painty-varnishy fumes were immediately reduced by at least 50 percent, and eventually, with the help of my open balcony door, they receded to the point that I felt I could breathe again. Surely by now they must be finished with all that painting, right?? (I might keep the cardboard up for another week or so, just to be sure...)

And I was reminded of another difference between house-living and condo-living this morning, when I was awoken by the sound of knocking against my bedroom windows. In the second and a half it took me to realize it was the window washers (normally, it only would've taken me half a second, but I was just waking up...), the thought that it MIGHT be a daytime ax murderer on a bungee cord did cross my mind. But hey, the good thing is that I was wide awake by that time and able to jump right out of bed. No coffee needed. (I had some anyway, of course... I'm not crazy... :))

I'm off to find lunch... and while I'm eating, I will gaze contentedly at the cityscape outside my squeaky clean windows...