adventures in amy-land

Number two…..I’ll probably be writing some daily entries until I get up to date. FYI.

So, after the first night in the house, Trav and I met my brother and his wife for brunch on Sunday. At brunch Dustin explains to me that the rentals sans refrigerators are a very typical thing in Southern California. He never mentioned it to me because I guess he figured all states were like that.  I guess people get very attached to their appliances down here????  He tells me he has a refrigerator a client gave him when they were doing a remodel and that I could have it.  Score! No need to rent or buy a huge refrigerator to tote around with me, if only I had power for that free refrigerator…… Then my brother, Dustin, drives us to the airport to drop Travis off for his flight home. About an hour later I receive a text message, “Amy I have the keys to the rental truck in my pocket and am about to board the plane.” Just when you think it’s over….. So I try to see if there’s a way he can leave the keys there for me or if there’s somewhere I can go to pick them up (lost and found or something). Nope thanks to Homeland Security you can not leave a set of keys, they just might be explosive! I get the need to be cautious, but does anyone else feel like it’s maybe been taken a little too far? I am supposed to return the truck by Monday and will be charged late fees for turning the truck in late. Crap! Travis tells me he will overnight the keys Monday morning and I figure I’ll just have to deal with it, not much I could do to change it.

I spent the rest of my weekend unpacking and trying to figure out who I need to call to get the gas and water put in my name, and when garbage day is (the owners left three trashcans FULL of garbage for me). I try calling the property manager, she doesn’t return any of my calls (at one point someone picks up the phone and hangs up immediately). I was never given my landlord’s phone number, just the address to send the rent to each month. I got a note with the electric company on it, but nothing on gas, water or garbage. Either that day or the next (I can’t recall), I spoke with the neighbor who lives next door to me, a very sweet and soft spoken Polish lady, and she tells me the previous tenants never had the landlords phone numbers, but the landlords were there the day before I arrived and she got their phone number. Anya (I think that’s her name) goes inside and gets the number for me, and I call immediately. I leave a message with Steve, my landlord’s son, telling him what a horrible job his property manager did. I should have been informed in advance about there being no power, no refrigerator, and who to contact to get the utilities transferred to my name.  I also let him know there’s no hot water, the kitchen sink’s cold water doesn’t work at all and from the looks of the fence and ants outside, there are probably termites.

When the landlord returns my phone call he claims that he did give me the gas co phone number and the water company.  He didn’t (I still have the note).  In between the time of him calling me back I realized the lack of hot water was a simple matter of the valve needing to be turned on. I was a little embarrassed about that one, I like to think of myself as being a little more intelligent about those kinds of things than what the average female is given credit for, but not this time… I also drove into work to use the internet in order to find out who I needed to call to get the utilities put into my name, made the calls and took care of everything. Between then and Wednesday there wasn’t much excitement apart from meeting neighbors, camping out in my house, reading and getting ready for bed by flashlight and candlelight and beginning work on Tuesday morning (I did manage to get lost even with a GPS unit on the way to work my first day, BUT the addresses there are strange and the GPS was obviously not aware of that– in my defense.

And on the fifth day there was light. Four days, no power, finally things seemed to be coming together!!

I’ll it quits for now, but the slug phenomenon is coming up soon, so stay tuned…..

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