The Sad Bear

September 9, 2008

First Impressions

From Waynesboro, VA

We live 21.9 miles from the nearest Panera Bread but near enough to the newspaper office that I could play long-toss with my co-workers on their smoke breaks from our second floor back deck.

The lights were out when we arrived last week. None of the switches worked so we spent our first night in a hotel watching The Daily Show and Colbert Report and preparing the wording of a complaint phone call we were planning for the power company in the morning.

It was only a matter of flipping the circuit breakers on, which, luckily, we discovered the next morning before calling to complain.

We also found our apartment keys and three pages of the eight-page lease on the street corner that morning. That's where they'd blown from the car rooftop the night before.

She was angry. I was giggly.

Tucked beneath the windshield wipers of my car, which had spent the night stretching wide in our gravel parking area, was this note:

Driver,
You are blocking the parking of this residence plus you are blocking parking 4 my car. If you are about to move in please note that each apt. has 2 spaces apiece and you are blocking both of mine. my car was unable to park comfortably because of yours being in the way. But if you are not a resident of --address redacted-- than next time I will call the police and have it towed. So please be considerate and park further down. Thank you, Apt.--address redacted--

Fairly pleasant greeting considering the U-Haul was attached and pretty obviously part of a moving operation.

Our landlady found and read the note that day too, told us not to worry, and described that we weren't actually blocking anyone else's spot, that the author of the note only had one car, and that it was indeed parked comfortably. For a diagram, click this link.

We have a toilet with a lot of swirl and little power. We kill a few bugs every night. And it's the laundromat for now until our landlady brings over the new washer and dryer.

We nailed in a new mailbox and share a shake a day from Kline's Dairy Bar. We see mountains all around us but our windows are painted shut. We've had a mottled move-in and I start in the morning.

Labels: Virginia, W'boro

by Tony at 2:01 PM |