GOOD MORNING!!

So – why is my post title SHOUTING?

Because I really hadn’t thought about how noisy these chickens are!

It is an untruth, or at least an incomplete truth, that chickens crow at dawn. I’m persuaded, on 2 nights experience, that any crowing at dawn is purely coincidental. They crow all the time, just a little bit less at dark.

And there are a lot of them. I found one sitting on the mat at my front door when I came home this evening.

I moved into the purple house apartment Saturday. A co-worker, Roy, showed up Saturday to load up my stuff and bring it over. Before then, I’d stopped at two yard sales and picked up a pair of pillowcases and a blanket, a yoga mat, a few hangers and a towel. After we dumped all the stuff here he went out on his boat and I went into town to get a set of sheets ($48 for the cheapest, and thankfully in pink OR navy blue so I wasn’t stuck with pink!) and a skillet ($32, on sale for $19). While the days were warm, the nights have been breezy and cool, so I layered the open-weave blanket and the ‘Provencal’ yellow-&-blue tablecloth atop the sheets, and that works for now.

I scrubbed out cabinets and washed dishes and unpacked my bags. Still plenty to do, and a good cleaning (breaking out the toothpicks, etc for a detailed clean result, as my family knows I like to get down to) is a great way to get to know a house. I hadn’t thought to ask about mail delivery; when I noticed an envelope on the laundry room floor today I realized there is a slot built into the wall by the doorway, the laundry room being where it lands (hey – it works!)

Garbage pickup – must be in degradable plastic bags – Tuesday and Friday. Recycling – must be in blue bags, and only glass and metals (they don’t recycle paper or plastic, at least from home).

Given the cost of power, I am vigilant about its use; the cost is something like 330% of what it is at home. I see the meter spinning every time the rather large refrigerator kicks on, and my various electronics are on a power strip/surge protector that can be dead-switched on the power-drain side. I don't turn on a light until even using candles gets ridiculous.

Water is the same way – those who don’t use water conservatively find themselves without. I’ll be putting a filled water bottle in the toilet tank to cut down on the water usage – it is an older fixture, in great shape but a heavy water user.

I swear I hear a cow bellowing. My mind must be going.

Brought home two large projects to work on tonight, especially since I bowed out of the office around 2 to be home for the internet installation (tho I’d also edited reports for about 5 hours this weekend.) The Dockyards Cruise ship Terminal EIS is back in our hands and we have to kick a report out by the end of the week. My boss isn’t back from Canada until the 11th and needs to hit the ground running on it. In fact, she is probably furious at my not being at the office this afternoon; we had already spoken a couple times this morning, and I’d warned her this installation appointment was on my schedule for today, but deadlines are deadlines – how well I understand that!

And on that note – bye for now, y’all!