Greg and Kat's blog

To recap: I was tired to start with, and had walked every single aisle in a Super Target by this point in the day. Super Targets are bigger than regular Targets, you know.

The two that were leaving the new apartment were having trouble getting everything packed up. We had already told them that we were coming into town with practically nothing, so we were happy to take their futon, desk, and whatever. They didn’t want to move it. Everybody wins.

This set off a couple of calls from them: do you want an old radio? a desk chair? Sure! So, it’s hard to say we didn’t encourage them to leave stuff. When we got there, the house had a bunch of stuff left, and the general appearance of clean. Not all useful stuff, but not bad.

But, the more we looked around, the worse it got. Everything looked clean, but every surface in the kitchen was a little sticky; all of the floors were a little gritty; the bathrooms had been cleaned in a short-term way (toilets, surfaces wiped down), but were by no means clean (built-up gunk around taps, mildewed shower curtain). Pretty much everything needed to be cleaned in one way or the other.

And the stuff! Every door and cupboard was a new surprise. Twenty different old crusty bathroom cleaners. A whole cupboard full of disposable plates and cups. Three boxes of wooden matches, a case of matchbooks, and a few other packs of matches (all in the same drawer). Three part bottles of hoisin sauce, and another three ketchups.

Two days later, and thing are looking a lot better. We still have a few things to take care of, but the place is definitely liveable.

To give you an idea of my status… we went to get a few more groceries yesterday afternoon. Actual groceries this time: food to eat, not to have stocked in the kitchen. We were in aisle 9 (of maybe 16) in this store, and I honestly wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the end.

I took the evening off, and I feel a lot better today.