At my age you’d think I’d be used to change, especially four years from our worldwide pandemic. I was bummed to find upon my arrival in Düsseldorf that the Visit Düsseldorf store across from the main train station has closed. This was a welcoming visitors center in which I bought my DüsseldorfCard that I used to take transit. I subsequently purchased a virtual card, but it made me sad nonetheless.
Though I can’t say that my stay in Düsseldorf was monumental, I did enjoy my time as best as my body would permit. I walked as much as possible, drank almost exclusively alt beer (the local specialty), ate so much that I wanted to burst, and took a few photos in the process. I certainly didn’t expect to well up at the sound of “You are my Sunshine” as played by a band outside a brewery on Sunday morning; this was a song sung to me often by my mother when I was a child.
My limited German skills were put to the test as I opened each conversation in German in hopes that I could understand the response provided; spoiler: I mostly could not.
Well before you read this I will be on my way to Brussels, Belgium, by way of a couple of trains, via Aachen, Germany. I am meeting ITP-Readers Barb, Sal, and Allan there and we will kick around Brussels and Bruges before starting our cycling adventure on Thursday.
Wordle: three, my starter was RIPEN
Connections: perfect, Green > Yellow > Blue > Purple
Dang, it’s 2pm, I’m 1st!!!
Slept 12 hours last night. We are good to go today!!!
As of last Friday I am no longer a resident of Grant Park. In June I decided I was done with homeownership, particularly ownership of a 121 year old house that hasn’t had any significant money spent on it in 20 years and was starting to show it. There’s also the matter of extracting the equity out of it to pay off my can’t be soon enough ex-wife. I rented a dumpster for the second time in four years and now have 80% fewer possessions, most of which are in a 10 x 10 storage unit. I consider renting a dumpster to be one of the highest forms of self care. The sale of the house closed on August 23, and so the house will benefit from the fresh energy of a new family. I’m waiting on a 3 bedroom apartment to become available on October 7 at Modera Reynoldstown, two blocks from the BeltLine, the Madison Yards Publix, Muchacho, and so on, plus directly across the street from The Eastern. I am so over homeownership that I don’t even want to roll the trash down to the curb, and so I’ll be glad to have a trash chute once again. I expect to be far less paranoid this time around about dropping my keys down the chute than I was when I lived on the 18th floor of the Mayfair on 14th Street in 1993-1994.
There will be a further winnowing of my remaining possessions. https://www.discount-junkremoval.com/ is going to move my stuff from the storage unit to the apartment, and between now and then I’ll earmark the stuff that they’ll take along with them so that I’m not moving stuff into the apartment just to immediately discard it.
I retrieved my car from Asheville Saturday, and had a failed attempt at a beer at Salt Face Mule Brewing. We met some folks there but the place was shutting down due to a watermain break. We went less than a mile down the road, and thankfully across the county line to Wagbar, and had a lovely beer there, and then we convoyed our way back to Atlanta. It’s good to have the house sold, there was much high drama along the way. It’s good to have my car back. It’ll be good to get into the apartment, and now I can focus on getting this divorce moving along. There are only so many hours in the day.
This is exciting news and I’m sure a burden to be lifted! Congrats.
When do you have to be “out” and will you be in limbo until the new digs are available?
I was “out” last week. I have a nice place to rest in between, the apartment will enable me to start having my kids back again. So, that’s been the biggest limbo.
I have felt absolutely suffocated by my possessions for more than a decade, so all of this has been a long time coming.
Apartment complexes have trash chutes again? The last one I lived in did not, we had to take our trash and recycling down to the dumpster. It would’ve been so nice to just shove it down a chute!
Anyway, good for you, David, I’m so glad you’re moving forward!
It all depends upon the building. For Modera, on the first and second floor there’s a Trash Valet service, where you set your trashcan outside your apartment at 6:00 PM every night to get emptied. That’s a bit too bougie for me, I’m going to be on a higher floor and will utilize the chute on my own terms. Apparently you have to live high enough up in the building to get access to the chute.
In 2013-2014 I lived in an apartment in Highland View, which is on the Beltline in Va-Hi just past Paris on Ponce. Every Monday we were supposed to put our trash outside our doors at 5:00 or 6:00 pm and they would take it away. One Monday I was leaving and wouldn’t be back until late that night, so I put my trash out at noon. They slapped me with a $75 fee because we weren’t allowed to besmirch the complex with our trash before the allotted time. WTF?!
Wordle in 4. I was inspired by a poor starter for some reason.. QUITE!
A poor ride Saturday- just felt like crap, as if I could never warm up. No idea…
A very nice wedding Saturday evening. A lovely old farm set up with big, open structures for the event. Open bar and buffet dinner.
Sunday, a ride to Roopville (this side of Carrolton) to look at a living quarters trailer. Nice, but need more space when we count in 3 dogs. We’ve decided that maybe this first one can be a “starter” trailer and if we like it, move up. They do seem to keep their value, unlike camping trailers.
It’s perfectly OK to well up at certain memories. Hell, I can do it with a Publix commercial!! Don’t get me started at weddings!!
-FP
Barb — Keep those pics coming, I love seeing them!
I had a pretty nice weekend. Friday my friend Sarah had a dinner party, just 8 of us and it was so fun. Saturday we did errands and then got mani-pedis, after that I was tired but Kevin went off to Summer Shade for a few hours. Yesterday we went to the Braves game and the weather was SO perfect! It was a wonderful afternoon to watch baseball.
It was real hard getting out of bed this morning.
Caught up with the troublemakers in Brussels. We’ve been to Atonium and Mini-Europe, very fun. Now drinking a beer, even more fun!
Imagine!!