After 20 days,
you’ve settled into a routine. Ideally, you have a very good idea
of how to do your job. Also, you may have paid (off) the credit card
bill(s) from your move.
But, your furniture
is still at your old place, or in storage, and you’re still in the sublet. On the
other hand, after 20 days, you may not miss your stuff. For now.
Indeed, the only
thing (not person) that I miss is my garden, and compost bin.
O 'Yukon Gold' potato cultivar, you will be missed
While having a
container garden on a balcony is feasible, composting in an apartment
setting is not. In Houston, I had to keep a bale of hay in the garage, so that
there was some anti-smell components to add to the compost when the
need arose. With a balcony, a composting system (bin plus hay plus
room to maneuver) may take anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of
your balcony or patio.
As the Wired guide suggests, you’ll be buying dirt every season. The economics
of apartment gardening lean heavily towards that of a money-sinking hobby,
versus a money-saving task.
In more prosaic news, yesterday
I checked
the PO box, and there was mail! It’s taken more than two weeks, but
Houston mail is making its way to Madison. Mail is also starting to
arrive in the sublet mail box. Mostly fliers, but some
sublet-specific stuff.
In
other relocation news, I’ve
visited several neighborhoods, and compared them to the neighborhood
where the sublet is. While
some neighborhoods have more people outside, walking their dogs,
etc., they’re further from the office than the sublet is. Some
neighborhoods have no highway or airplane noise whatsoever, but
they’re much, much further from the office. Some neighborhoods have
high-quality housing, but the neighborhood itself is monolithic and
dull. One
gets the feeling that it may be a ghetto in about ten or 20 years.
Some neighborhoods have a
decent-sized grocery store (something bigger than an Aldi) within
five minutes' walking distance. But, you clearly hear the major road that is
adjacent to the grocery store.
Overall,
no neighborhood stands out as
being really better in more than one way than the
one I’m currently living.
The sublet is close to work, and
in a reasonably active, but quiet neighborhood.
The build quality of the sublet is pretty good as far as apartments
go. There are worse houses out there. But, the neighborhood is kind
of pricey, and far from major grocery stores.
Right
now, I’m unwilling to pay more than the mortgage payment
equivalent-of-rent to live further away from the office. Only one
neighborhood seems worth it, and it is the one within five minutes of a
grocery store. It also has some the cheapest real estate in the area.
I have yet to see the inside of house that is for sale there,
so build quality is not yet fully known.
In
other words, I may just stay in the sublet. Yeah, that
means missing out on not
owning real estate in Madison. But, I already own real estate in
Houston. That house is being
rented out. Selling the house
there, to buy a house up here, is not an obvious good decision. At
least, on a five-year planning scale.
In
community events news, I’ve gone to a total of three library
events: the John Scalzi reading, a performance by Forward Theater,
and a discussion lead by Dan Egan on his new book. Forward
Theater was salaciously funny. Egan’s talk gave some ideas that
could be useful for my ecology hobby. However, it has become clear
that I should go to community events that take place somewhere other
than a library. This is not to avoid burn-out, but to avoid becoming accidentally complacent or dependent on library events.
But, the Middleton Library has indoor agriculture (sort-of), too!
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