Posts
Okay, my last post was back in April... May... something like that. I'm starting to feel like one girlfriend who calls one year of her life "The year that was 2." But for wholly other reasons.
DF & I finally - with a lot of help from his brothers, sister-in-law, and some very good friends - got packed, got a 16 foot rental truck loaded and made our way to New York State. Oh My Gods!! I though we'd never make it. I had planned for us to leave on Jun 29th. But after some discussion with all our helpers it was decided that we would leave on the 30th because there was just not enough time with all the stuff we had not yet packed to get it all done and allow me to get enough rest to be able to drive for the better part of 8 hours. I think I've mentioned before that DF doesn't drive. Well trust me, there were times during the drive when I wish he did.
DF lost his job last October (2012) and had been looking for a job ever since. About the time D & M moved to NY in April DF changed his job search to look for jobs in the Rochester, NY area. So then he starts getting calls for jobs in the KC area. The irony abounds! And then he started getting calls for New York... for areas around New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Binghamton, almost everywhere but Rochester. I had to make a list of cities and towns close to Rochester that were likely to have companies looking for Software Engineers/Computer Programers so he wouldn't have to always ask me if it was close by. "Well couldn't you relocate?" the recruiters would ask. "But I am relocating to be near my family," DF would reply. "Oh."
Then it finally happened that as we got closer and closer to our moving date DF started getting calls for companies in the Rochester area. Huzzah!! By the time we left he had 3 interviews lined up, 1 for the day after we arrived!!
We had to leave one of our kitties behind, but we found him a good home with a young couple in KC. They were willing to take him on because he was a very skittish cat. We brought our dog and other 2 cats with the intent of giving one cat to a friend of mine in NY. Well, he got to live with my friend and her husband, but then he got out and walked away. I'm sad but philosophical about it. The other cat and dog were going to go with us to whatever apartment we found. But then that cat, an indoor cat who was deathly afraid of ever going outside, suddenly decided he Liked the outside and decided to stay where he was. I hope he found good people.
Many thanks to M's oldest brother for helping get us to some apartment complexes in our search for an apartment. We found one we liked, put in applications with the appropriate application fee for M, DF, and me ($50 each for a total of $150). And after a lot of finagling and help from DF's brother we are now in our apartment.
It's a nice place in one of the two towns where I wanted us to live. The first town was Penn Yan because it was right on a lake and D loves being near the water, on the water, and in the water. She's just a water baby. The other town was Fairport. The main reason for both is the electric costs. Both Penn Yan and Fairport have a Municipal Electric service. That means both towns buy their electrical service from the lowest priced supplier and pass that savings on to their customers. We settled for Fairport and Everyone in the household agrees that this
was a good choice. Penn Yan would not have worked out because it's at
least an hour into Rochester And we don't have a vehicle... Yet. Penn
Yan pretty much requires one to have a vehicle: no bus service into or out
of town.
With the electric, our bill for September, which included running the AC constantly, was a whopping $31.35. In Kansas for the same usage it would have been closer to $200.00. Fairport Electric has a base rate of $4.10 and costs $0.03591 a kilowatt hour. In the winter they charge a little bit more per kilowatt because almost everyone has electric heat, but I can tell you that even with electric heat on it still won't cost us more than $100 a month.
So then, besides the cheap electric, there are lots of other perks with our location in Fairport. We're on a bus route so DF can get in to work without having to find a ride, a big issue since we don't have a vehicle yet. But we are working on that one. We're also within walking distance to DF's bank, a drug store, 2 major grocery stores, 3 restaurants, at least 2 fast food restaurants, 2 pizza places, and so many other businesses that we almost don't have to go anywhere else to shop. Even M's physical therapist is practically right next door.
When realtors are helping people find their ideal house they say the most important part of the search is location, location, location! And that is so true. If you don't have the ideal location for you and your family then nothing about that home will be right for you. For us, the location is perfect. The area is quiet, no sirens constantly even though we are less than a block from 2 intersecting state highways. The neighbors are friendly, maintenance staff is very friendly especially with our dog, and the office staff is wonderful. The property manager can be a bit gruff, but otherwise he's fine. He's still young.
So this year has been most eventful and hopefully our lives will only improve. We're in a home we like a lot in an area we love. We're close to most of our good friends and we're making even more friends as we get involved in more activities. We also have several creative outlets we are exploring. Life here is good.
One new friend we met at a Labor Day cookout became fairly important in our lives within a week when he rescued DF one night. DF had injured his knee when he bashed it twice on the trailer hitch of the moving truck we rented to move into the apartment. He didn't think much of it until week later when the pain got so bad he could hardly walk. So I took him to an urgent care facility and the doctor diagnosed it as an infection in the knee joint. Not something to mess around with apparently. Somehow there was a minor break in the skin and he got an infection in the knee. She prescribed antibiotics and crutches, and if there was no improvement in 2 days we were to go to the Emergency Department at one of the many hospitals in Rochester. Now before all this we had already decided to rent a car for a week to take care of the many errands one has to do after moving into a new place, so luckily we were able to drive DF back and forth to work while the knee got better. So the Monday after we took the car back DF went back to riding the bus to work. Now, the man is a bit absent minded, especially after working all day on computer code, and coming home he missed getting off the bus at the main transfer point downtown so he could get the bus home. So now he was stranded in downtown Rochester, a city he doesn't know at all, and we couldn't think of anyone who could help except our new friend P. We were a little worried we'd be imposing, but luckily he happily agreed. When they got back to the apartment P volunteered to pick up DF every night from work provided he didn't have other commitments. And so far, so wonderful. We feed him because that's what we do, and we reimburse him for gas. He also takes us places when he's free. Though we're beginning to feel a little like we're imposing even though he says he's fine with helping. We just don't want to feel like we're abusing his generosity. We'll see how this goes.
So life is evolving. Let's see what tomorrow holds in store!
