Category Archives: apartment

Sep 17

Survivor: Cincinnati Day 4

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Back of apartment building

Back of apartment building

Day 4 of power being out in our neighborhood and for much of the Greater Cincinnati area.  The Hurricane Ike-related windstorm on Sunday has caused power outages across Central and Southwestern Ohio.  Utility crews are working to restore power to all customers.  Duke Energy reported that about 90% of their customers in the Greater Cincinnati area have had power outages.

At home we’re hunkered down with flashlights and candles (shh!), ice, our propane grill, and whatever non-perishables we’ve found.  We’ve thrown out most of the items in our refrigerator, and we really need to get some laundry done.  We’re hopeful that power will be restored soon.

As I’ve entered our darkened neighborhood on my way home these past few nights, it has felt like I’m entering a scene from I Am Legend.  I keep the blinds open at night when I go to bed to be cheered when the streetlights come on.

As I mentioned in the previous post, we’re using this time as an opportunity to get to know our neighbors better and definitely count our blessings.  Those in the Gulf states are certainly worse off than we are.

For now, among my online friends, we’re affectionately calling this time Survivor: Cincinnati.

  

CBS – Theme From Survivor
   
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Update: The power came on this afternoon! Yay!

Mar 04

Don’t let the bedbugs bite!

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Growing up this was something my Mom would say to us kids before we went to bed. We have said this to Keisha, too. Little did we know how true we wanted it to be.

We apparently have a bedbug infestation in our apartment. We are having to get rid of a lot of things. Probably will have to get rid of our mattress and boxspring. And, of course the sofa and chair we picked up outside that someone was getting rid of some months ago.

That may very well be where they came from, since before having that in our home, we were all fine. Since then we have felt itchy when we wake up, thinking that it may have to do with our laundry detergent.

But then last night I actually felt a sting, and that’s what prompted us to check our mattress and elsewhere in our bedroom.

If we needed further motivation to clean up around our apartment, I guess this is it!

Related tags: journey+inside+my+mind journeyinsidemymind jimm

Sep 21

Our Heat Is Paid For, But…

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… the apartment complex doesn’t turn it on until the season has really changed. The reason they do this is because once the boiler heat gets turned on, it stays on for the entire season.

During winter this is nice. Tonight the temperature is supposed to dip to 37 degrees, and tomorrow it will go back up to 72. Our apartment will have no heat until sometime in November, if everything follows the pattern of last year.

So we may be using that extra blanket and the thicker pajamas tonight.

Aug 06

Power, Podcasting, and Plans

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Mood: upbeat, excited, contemplative

Powerless

Yesterday at around 5 PM someone had an accident in which they crashed their car into a telephone pole at an intersection just outside our apartment complex:

We were on our way home and noticed some traffic lights out, and we saw a Hamilton County Sheriff car activate its lights and speed off. When we got to our apartment complex, we saw the accident. We seriously hope that the people involved in the accident are okay. The crash had snapped the top part of the telephone pole, and there were live wires around. Hence the traffic signals being out.

When we got home, we realized that the power to our home was also out. We opened the windows, and I had to shut the computer off because it had been running off the batteries. Fortunately for us, we had dinner plans at another family’s home. More about that in a separate post, perhaps.

In the Dark, Relying on the One who is Powerful

When we got home after 9:30 PM, the power was still out. We found a flashlight, and since the batteries we had weren’t working with the other flashlights, I lit candles around our home.

Keisha, naturally, was afraid, and we did our best to reassure her. We told her that the power company was working as hard and as fast as they could to get power back on. More importantly, God, who never sleeps, is watching over her, and he’s given her a Mommy and Daddy who are watching out for her, too.

Jennie and I set the alarms on our cell phones to go off at 6 AM this morning, but at 11:21 PM last night, the power came back on – thankfully (it was muggy inside our home), as evidenced by the fans turning back on, along with other lights that had come on from our turning the switches out of habit.

I immediately set our alarm clock (that’s why I remember it was 11:21 PM) and went to every room and blew out the candles.

Jennie remarked last night as we came home that she wished there was some kind of food voucher we all could get whenever something like this happened. You see, she had just gone to the grocery store a couple days ago. We’ll have to go through the items in the refrigerator and freezer to see if they are still fresh.

But it’s not just us; its everyone in our section of the apartmennt complex.

Podcast Delay and Some Exciting Changes

So I haven’t spent any time putting together a show for this week. It’s been yuckily hot, and, well, other things have taken priority, naturally. Maybe some time this afternoon or evening, perhaps.

Also, there are going to be some exciting changes going on for us as the next several months progress – (no, we’re not having another baby, Mom). I’ll have to talk about those in a separate post.

Okay, I’ll divulge 1 big thing: August 21st is my 1-year anniversary in podcasting. I welcome your audio comments specifically, but you can also send e-mail. Please visit the podcast page for contact details. You can do something directly via the website or call the Listener Hotline.

Jul 31

TV Volume Poltergeist

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Mood: happy and tired
Listening to: Keisha getting ready for bed
Eating: leftover LaRosa’s pizza
Watching: 1st half of Glory Road

We were puzzled earlier tonight. It seemed that, for no reason whatsoever, all of a sudden the volume on our TV would get increased to the maximum. The Mute button on the remote control wouldn’t work, and when we tried to turn the volume down with the remote control and by hand, it wouldn’t stay down.

So we’d have to turn the TV off and turn it back on. That seemed to work. For a little while.

Jennie and I were trying to figure out what was going on. It seemed as though someone else had control of our TV. We speculated that it was because the TV was 10 years old.

And then I got up and walked around the coffee table:

Yesterday I disconnected our digital cable box and our cable modem. I put the remote control for the cable box with this stuff. It appears that the remote control can still control our TV, even though it’s not connected with the digital cable box anymore. I saw that the cable modem was sitting on the remote control, pressing the TV and Volume control.

Whew. And we were thinking that Otis, our house ghost, was back. What? I just heard a sound from somewhere in the apartment.

May 20

Community-wide Yard Sale and a Personal Dog Walk

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Mood: restless
Listening to: Teknikal Diffikulties – comedy sketch podcast
Eating: plain bagel with spread, orange juice, 2 small frappacino (sp?) mochas, and 1 beef jerky stick (see below)

Our apartment complex is having a yard sale. Members of the community have signed up for “booths” to sell, buy, trade, whatever. Jennie signed us up yesterday, I think. The sale has been going on since 8:30 this morning and will continue until 4 PM. Most of what we’re selling is Keisha’s old toys, but there is some of our stuff in the mix, too:

Our booth is situated right where Keisha’ bus stop is, and it’s close to the entrance of the duck pond. Having ducks and geese in the neighborhood is a double-edged sword: it adds character, but it also adds mess. Specifically, we have to be on the lookout for duck and geese poop on the sidewalks and streets where we walk.

Jennie came home from work this morning, packed up the stuff we were selling, and went to the booth. I stayed in bed for another couple of hours and finally decided it was time to get up. I feel like I’ve slept so much these past few days, and I needed to get out of the home. Jake needing his walk also was a motivating factor. I got up, put my contacts in, got dressed, and put three plastic bags in my pocket. I put Jake’s leash on him, and I began our walk.

I’ve taken Jake to the food mart near the local fire station before. It’s only a few minutes’ drive, but it’s a good half hour walk. One way, that is. I brought three plastic bags because I know that if I take Jake for that long of a walk, there’s a good chance I’ll need them, to pick up after he relieves himself. And it’s a good thing I did.

Once we got to the food mart, I tied Jake up to a telephone pole and went inside. He was very well-behaved; didn’t bark or whine at all. I went inside and got 2 Starbucks frappacino(sp?) mochas and two beef jerky sticks that were a quarter apiece. One of them I shared with Jake, the other one was mine. Then we came back home.

Right now my right ear feels completely clogged, and I’m still feeling congested, but I’m going to head down to relieve Jennie so that she can come home and get some sleep.

I might bring this laptop with me so that I do some work on this week’s podcast. Yes, I’m still planning on releasing one. Maybe one with very little talk, since I don’t have my usual voice. We’ll see.

Dec 21

Eggs on our windows!

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I do not believe this. Someone just threw at least three eggs at our apartment building because our living room windows have the ooze all over them.

I was laying on the couch, channel-surfing, when all of a sudden I heard BAM! BAM! BAM!

I got up to see what it was.

I’m half-tempted to go outside and try to track whoever did this down. This all happened at 10:15 PM.

11 PM Update: I just spoke with the police officer who came here. He saw the egg on the windows, etc. He said that it’s really the complex’s responsibility to call a police report in, since they will have to take care of the damage. Especially since it’s to the windows. They aren’t broken, they just got egg mess on them.

I and our neighbor in the same building have tried the maintenance number, but it appears they are having problems with their line because the phone company’s not making the connection.

The officer said they’ve gotten three other phone calls tonight about eggings. They have some suspect descriptions, too.

That’s why I’m glad I called. And I’m glad I’m blogging about this.

Dec 08

That White Stuff – one hour later

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Mood: wonder
Listening to: Slate Magazine Podcast: Dreaming of a White (House) Christmas
Eating: chewing some gum
Watching: the snow continue to pile up outside

Here’s what the front of our apartment looks like at one hour later than before, this time in color:
Outside our apartment 8 Dec 2005 1700 EST

And it’s continuing to come down!

By the way, that’s our apartment on the second floor. See the Christmas tree?