Fish on a Bicycle

Past The Two Week Mark and Still Pedaling

We were here in our very small apartment less than a week when we got the offer of the 940 sq foot apartment we had initially wanted. We will have two baths and a small "den" into which my Phoenix Hardwoods oak desk will fit. I will have then the reading, writing and thinking space I lack now.

The new room is fifty feet down the hall, but on the quieter side of the building NOT facing the traffic’s unending hum and whine. I am really glad about that.

It has been confusing at night to be half asleep, and in my mind, still in bed on Goose Creek or Rock Hill where I slept nights for a total of 24 years. But on our dirt roads, what then are those alien noises? Freaks me out. Turns out, highway 63 just a few hundred yards away, carries lots of trucks 30 miles south to the capitol, Jefferson City. So yeah, it is kinda busier than I had expected.

The renovation of the larger apartment space (940 vs 800 sq feet) should be complete by around the first of November. The irony is not lost: this was our original choice of apartments and the original projected move-in date. After long months of waiting and wondering, we got where we hoped to go—the long way round. Funny how things work out.

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NOTE: My take-home from this, for those of you who have followed along since last November is: Don’t immediately rule out accepting an offer for a unit in independent or assisted living that might be less than you originally wanted.

Preference for newly opened units goes to current residents until they are all housed; then they call those who are not residents with anything that might be left. At this facility be prepared to wait 3 to 5 years for the independent living apartments if you are not already living here.

This pending move has given me permission to stop the push to organize in the smaller space we are in now, awaiting the more permanent residence down the hall. I don’t need an excuse to be lazy but I will use this one.

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GOOD, BAD and OTHERWISE

Burr oak. I recognized having never seen it in the flesh—or leaf, I guess. The acorns are almost the size of golf balls.

We hope for a window of moderate outdoor weather for the next six weeks. I really need to be OUT of DOORS beyond where the sidewalk ends. Walking the very long halls as we do every day makes me feel like toothpaste in tube, squeezed down to lunch, squeezed back up the tube to our little space.

I am thankful for the wood trails at Lenoir Woods, don't get me wrong. But I need the vastness of spaces that do the same thing for me as a walk at Smart View or Saddle Gap, although here, no mountain vistas. Will I ever just grab my camera and a water bottle and set off for a morning hike by myself? Will I make trail friends who know the area far better than I ever will?

We are averaging about two miles a day, to and from meals, walking mostly under roof. When winter comes, we will be thankful for this "mall walking" option. But just now, the walls are closing in. And the obligatory chit-chat or even simple howJaDoos in hallway passings are at times more social interaction than I'm good for. Smile, Fred. These are your neighbors.

OVERALL and EARLY ON

We are fortunate and thankful to be here. The facility is comfortable, well organized and managed, and accommodates a wide variety of elder-needs as well as amenities that we have not yet taken advantage of--like Frisbee golf or the game room or the theatre or library.

The wood-working shop is what it says on the tin. I was impressed. And likewise with the library. I hope to get my books onto those shelves, and Ann has found a book club she will attend on Friday.

I expect to feel as at home as a fish on a bicycle for another several months, and then maybe like a quadriped of some primitive kind by springtime, pedaling for all I'm worth. Movement towards our new selves is every bit as glacial as I had imagined, and I will just have to move with the momentum of the berg we're riding. Two weeks under our belts so far.

The library here is open round the clock and we pass it on the way to meals a couple of times a day