Plain Vanilla

I took a carload of stuff to the apartment in Boulder yesterday morning.  Luckily, because this building I'm moving into caters to the elderly (who, me?) and truly disabled, they have some grocery carts that remain on site and I was able to roll one of these to my car, load it up, push it into the elevator and all the way to my unit and unload it...

...which made it so much easier with this injured arm.  It took three trips from the car to the apartment, after which I took the long awaited hot shower, drove home, took a pain pill and took to my bed.


This morning I awoke to this...

It's melting and blowing off fairly rapidly.  It's about 40F degrees, but we're going to have lows in the 30F degrees off and on through Sunday so we might get even more snow.  NOAA predicts a high of 59F degrees on Monday, Memorial Day, however.


Yesterday I took some photos of what my brother called my "plain vanilla" apartment after I described it to him in a phone conversation.  And it is, but I've rented so much of my life that the white walls and beige carpet don't bother me.  They are just neutrals against which to display your owns tastes. 


So, here is the kitchen...

I was told these are new appliances and they appear to be.  The tote bag on the pass-through contains some plates I had yet to determine what to do with here in the cabin so they and some matching mugs are going to a new home.  Not too happy about the exposed concrete block and trying to think how I'll hang anything from that.


This is the bathroom...

 

I managed to get the shower curtain up with my left arm...

 

There's plenty of storage.  Thank goodness they had not replaced the sink with a pedestal sink and there is open shelf storage in the bathroom...

 

 

...and this entire little room which, knowing me, I'll have packed to the gills...

 

 The above photo refuses to center.  Wonder why?

This is the bedroom.  Small, but with a decent-sized closet, especially when you have had no closet for two years...

 

This cord hanging from the switch at the left is an emergency call button.  There's another one in the bathroom exactly where I'd expect the light switch to be.  I wonder how many times I'm going to mistakenly flip these before I get accustomed to them?

Here's the dining/living room.  More than adequate lighting and I don't abhor ceiling lights like some people do... 

And my most favorite part...

...the view from the tiny balcony.

So, that's it.  Here's my eye update...

...Day Three. The actual point of impact above my eyebrow is more obvious now.  I don't know if my eye looks better or worse.  I know my body feels worse today than it did yesterday.  I think it must be like over-exercising.  You are always sorer two days later than you are the very next day.  I'm going on the assumption it's not that I'm continuing trying to move piecemeal.  I figure if I avoid doing anything that hurts, I'll be OK, and so far, the things that hurt are rolling over and getting out of bed, trying to rearrange the bed clothes at night, getting dressed, inserting and turning the car key in the ignition and shifting gears.  I seem to be able to lift if I don't go over waist high, but reaching, or reaching and lifting, with my right arm are totally out of the question. I was having trouble getting my camera up at the right level to take photos and even keyboarding is a little difficult.

Well, it's still spitting snow, but most of the snow has melted off.  There is still a little on the deck.  I've fed the fox.  I missed her last evening so that's one thing off my mind.  I'm trying not to think about not being here daily to feed her, but hope I've seen her through a rough patch and that she'll go back to hunting when I can't be here on a regular basis.  I took the hummingbird feeder down on the west side of the cabin yesterday evening and don't think I had a bear visitation last night, but it was raining heavily, then snowing, so if it had any sense it just didn't venture out.

I've loaded several tote bags full of small numbers of books and magazines (heavy) into the car and will add a few more things, then make another run to Boulder today.  More later, Teddee

Bearly There

About 4 a.m. day before yesterday, I heard what was obviously a good-sized animal bumbling about outside, first on the east side of the cabin, then around on the deck on the south side, then on around the deck to the west side.  At that point, there was quite an increase in the bumbling and it dawned on me that I had thoughtlessly pushed the table, which I had left outside on the deck covered with a drop cloth, right under the large hummingbird feeder.  I got up and turned on the porch light and opened the top panel of the door, but couldn't see anything nor could I see anything out the west window.  I finally opened the bottom panel in the front door and craned my neck to look as far north as I could and, sure enough, there was a little bear haunch.  It appeared the bear was sitting on the deck.  I didn't have nerve enough to open the door and the noise soon ceased, so I assumed the bear had departed, but I  had to wait until morning to determine what had transpired.  

First thing when I got up I opened the door and found the hummingbird feeder, which looks like an apple...

...on the deck.  The stem of the apple had been pulled out and there was sugar water all over the deck.  I finally thought to take this yesterday....

 

 ...so we need a good hard rain to wash away the sugar syrup.  I moved the table further north that morning and haven't had a repeat performance and really wish I had had the gumption to open the door and get a quick shot.  It sounded as if the bear was rolling the hummingbird feeder around and I can just imagine it sitting with it between its legs like a little kid with a ball.  I'll never know.

In the meantime, Vixen, once she convinced herself it was true, is totally enjoying the fact that Apollo has moved.  It took her several days of running around on the south side of the cabin and peering anxiously to the east to finally be assured he was gone.  This morning she spent quite a bit of time in the yard and on the deck while I was washing dishes outside.  I looked out the west window about an hour ago and she was curled up like a cat in the meadow looking so relaxed...

That darn deck railing.  I knew the minute I opened the door she'd get up, so took this through the west window and couldn't get high enough to get her entire body.  But you can tell from her face, that she's relaxed. Dixie has not been here today, so she was in a dog-free environment.  I gave her some kibble and topped it with part of a can of corn since I was out of eggs.  That very first night she came to eat I gave her some leftover corn and she ate every bit of it.  Well, I can tell she isn't really all that fond of corn...she was just starving that night...I don't know if this is a commentary on the corn...

...but she ate around it and left it for the magpies...

I have a friend who detests magpies.  I think they are rather striking, but may have read that they, at least in days of yore, scavenged battlefields.  Maybe my friend is having a past life experience?!

Brrr!  My thermometer says it's 55F degrees, but it seems colder.  It is overcast.  This is the western sky at 7:30 p.m. NOAA is predicting a low of 39F degrees tonight and a chance of snow after midnight and a high tomorrow of only 49F degrees.  Poor hummingbirds!

I just started a fire in the wood range...I picked up more pine cones today when I went to the spring to get water...so it should warm up in here fairly quickly.  

I checked out a couple of books at the library today.  I've been having quite a lot of luck in the "Mcs," so today I got Beneath the Bleeding by Val McDermid and Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry.  I'm turning on my electric blanket and heading to bed to read.  I'll do book reports!  Happy Friday!  Teddee