Two-room apartment on the second floor

[austin_dern]

And some news from back east: my parents have got an apartment. The plan had been that, after my mother finished seeing the last clients who wouldn't accept that she was retiring, that they'd go down to Charleston for a week or so and examine a couple of apartments they'd scoped out. Now, my mother says, they've got a place rented. Sight unseen, she admits, but they thought the description was just too right for them. I note that I got the e-mail about this from my mother, while my father hasn't offered any comment.

I would like to offer reservations about all this, except I'm on spectacularly weak ground for that: except for Rutgers none of the colleges I ever applied to, for undergraduate or graduate life, were campuses I'd seen (and in those days there weren't even virtual tours on the web). I went to grad school in Troy, New York, where I'd never been even in passing, and that turned out to be exactly to my tastes, both in college and community. Heck, I went to a country I'd never visited on a continent I'd never visited to a department of people I'd never spoken to (it was the easiest way to support my grad student habit), and that worked out quite well for me. I'm too vulnerable to a counterargument that logically sound. And I'd been to Lansing before marrying into the city, but, if things had gone a little differently I might have been taking up residence in Nagadoches, Texas, as long as it would be with my bride, despite knowing nothing about it besides that it's where the Marx Brothers became the Marx Brothers.

Anyway, since they had the trip planned, they're still going, but are turning it into a pure vacation and chance to putter around town before flying back to my aunt's home and then go on their Australia/Pacific cruise vacation. They've got a two bedroom/two bath apartment that overlooks the pool, and they ``don't know any more details yet'', so, as ever, let's just hope they know what they're doing.

Trivia: During the Opening Ceremonies for the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, Eleanor Roosevelt took a ride down the new bobsled run. Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle.

Currently Reading: A Splintered History of Wood, Spike Carlsen.

PS: Reading the Comics, February 21, 2014: Circumferences and Monkeys Edition, getting me all caught up on mathematics-themed comic strips that have recently run.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Nacogdoches. >:)

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yes, either place.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Nagadoches is a place *I'd* have to argue about going.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I was kind of glad they didn't offer me the job. It didn't look like somewhere I would want to live.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

It does rather sound as if the genes for adventure and impulsiveness are strongly hereditary. =:)

Myself, I wound up taking up a position with Trilobyte with no idea what the locality was like, simply that the company seemed pretty nifty - cue a container cube getting loaded up for slow shipping across an ocean and continent. I'd do it again, no question. ^_^ I met some very cool folk in that gig, and absolutely loved my time (with some detractions, admittedly) in Oregon and California, across the various positions thus far. I'll admit, though, if a new SF position were to present itself, I'd have to consider carefully, as wildlife photography has come to mean quite a lot to me - would I want to lose being able to visit buns so readily as now? (That may sound quite ridiculous)

They weren't swayed by the temptations of Australia or New Zealand? 'Course, that always involves the sheer fun and delight of border officials and bureaucracy, with which you're quite familiar. Confound this concept of borders.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

The thing is I'm not adventurous or impulsive. And neither are my parents. I don't understand how any of this is happening. I admit such broad leaps of faith have turned out pretty well for us --- heck, the elder of my little brothers recovered from his divorce by moving to California where, as best I can tell, he had no connections to anyone or anything --- but it's still bizarre.

And I'm glad your leap has worked out. Give mid-Michigan some consideration, though, there's a lot that's wonderful here.

My parents have never seen Australia nor New Zealand. They were saving it for retirement as the last continent they haven't visited on some holiday or other. Apparently my father did pitch retirement in Argentina once, but why that hasn't gone anywhere I don't know.