Sunday, December 14, 2008
Apartment Rant
We have lived here for just under 3 months, and I'm already sick and tired of this place.
Yes, there's tons of room for what we pay. That's the plus.
Now, the minuses.
1. The office is rarely open the hours posted. This is a big issue. There are several times I've come home to see UPS or FedEx stickers on the front door. There is no reason for this. UPS and FedEx both deliver in the middle of the day. This also causes problems when I need to get in touch with someone about my rent, a problem, or anything else. No one is there!
2. There's gated parking. Nice, right? There is no security watching that parking area. Hence, my recent break-in and stereo theft. This is a higher crime area. Don't you know to put security on a parking area if you're in a higher crime area?
3. Laundry is ridiculous. (This is what triggered this post tonight.) There are no washers/dryers in unit. There are two laundry rooms in the building. One with one washer and one dryer in my tower. One with three washers and three dryers in the other tower. That's right, folks. Four, count 'em, four, washers and dryers for 60+ apartments. Can you tell me how this calculates? I'll tell you. I've now washed two loads of laundry. Waiting to start the third because the first is sitting in a basket waiting for a dryer while the second load is still sitting in a washer, also waiting for a dryer. I won't use the dryer in my tower because the seal has a crack that catches clothes and tears them up.
4. The climate control is terrible. There is physically a ten-degree difference from one end of the apartment to the other. I don't believe the windows are insulated. This has resulting in a DOUBLING of my electric bill for December.
5. The water heater cannot handle us. My showers take around 12 minutes. By this time, the water is getting cold. Mary's showers run around 18 minutes. Can you imagine?
6. There are three front entrances (west tower, main lobby, east tower), but only the main lobby door can be opened from the outside (or via the comm system). The issue here is that in order to make grocery runs bearable, I purchased a small cart. All the doors have ramps. However, moving from my tower to the main lobby is a set of stairs; moving from the main lobby to the other tower is another set of stairs.
These are all issues we have never had in ANY of the previous apartments we've lived in. The offices are always open business hours. There is either security or the covered parking is so secured, there isn't a need for security. We have always had in unit washer/dryer. Never had an issue with climate control. Always been enough hot water. Well, never needed the cart; we've always had nearby parking.
Sometimes, I just want to pull my hair out. But I like it too much, so it stays.
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Thursday, December 11, 2008
Boring...
Today was quite boring.
Doing laundry late into the night, kept me awake till around 3am. That does not facilitate a 5:30 wake-up very well.
I wasn't feeling well this morning, so I called in and stayed in bed for a while. Around 11 or so, I felt well enough to get up, but really did not feel like going in to work. Thankfully, being a programmer, I was able to connect remotely and do some work. So, not a complete loss of the day.
This evening I helped a friend with her computer. Again, remotely. Though I did it with no visuals; just over the phone. For some reason her wireless network was on the fritz. We went through the setup steps and reconfigured the router. So far, that seems to have fixed the problem.
As far as World of Warcraft is concerned, I got my healer, Celluth, up to 37 tonight. I'm going to try my best to hit 40 with him before the week is out. I've GOT to level him so he can be a healer for the Oklahoma group. Only 35 levels to go. :-D
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Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Nude Not Naked
Saturday's "Nude Not Naked" photography gallery show went very well. There were several photographic artists present, and it was exciting to meet all of them.
Photographer Greg James hosted the event and was kind enough to put a selection of everyone's work into an individual slideshow that was showing on one of the large format flat screen TVs.
Several models, including Mary Crouch, Brad Elpers, and Rachael, were present. Many of them were the subject matter of some of the displayed works.
Other photographers present included Ken Centauri, Daniel Love, and, of course, my wife, Mary Wano. These photographers were formally asked by Greg James to be part of a nude photography cooperative in Kansas City. This co-op would represent the artists as a group, reducing the stress of individual artists trying to establish showings on their own.
Robert Chastain, manager of the now-defunct ATLAS gallery, was present, and offered his new, as yet, un-named space for use by the co-op. This new location includes shooting space, gallery space, and space for installation of film processing equipment.
In a surprise move, Greg James debuted a portion of a documentary of his creation. He asked present artists for critiques, suggestions and their impressions. Unfortunately, because it has not been released, I am not at liberty to speak about the contents of that documentary. Suffice to say, the six minute piece was so powerful that several viewers, including myself, were struck emotionally. Bravo, Greg. I can't wait to see the completed piece.
A final bravo to all the artists who displayed their work at the showing. There wasn't a single piece up that I did not enjoy. Every last piece had something about it that was special and unique. I eagerly await the revealing of more of their works.
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Monday, December 08, 2008
Attempt at Posting Normalcy
I'll just see how this goes, but I'm going to try to write things here much more often.
Today was my dental cleaning. Nothing big. Just with a new hygienist.
I was a bit nervous since I hadn't flossed pretty much since just before we moved. I started again last week and the blood gushed. No issues today, however. Clean bill, just the same trouble areas that the dentist already knew about.
The rest of the day was spent rather lazily. I did practically nothing. I gathered some trash and took it out. Despite the fact that I should have also cleaned some cups/glasses and done at least one load of laundry. I'm such a slob sometimes.
This evening, after Mary got home from work, we went and had dinner with a friend of hers. A little more expensive than I had hoped, but I think we'll manage.
I'm dreading tomorrow. The landlord slipped a paper under the door stating that exterminators would be by at noon. The apartment is all a shambles. Debating if I should leave a note and say, 'Today is not good. Catch us next time. Thanks.'
Tonight, I think Mary and I are going to play WoW together for the first time in a couple weeks. Both death knights. It's a role reversal, though. Kurathan is a prot warrior and Thepplstroll is a subtlety rogue. I'm the tank, she's the dps. But our death knights are specced for opposite roles. Hers is frost (tank), mine is unholy (dps). We'll see how it goes tonight.
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