Another Rainy Day

Well the rain hasn't let up here pretty much all week. Put a bit of a damper on this week's events, but hey, I don't mind going for lunches and watching movies in lieu of the pool and beach sometimes.

Last night it was raining wicked hard! We have a vaulted ceiling with a metal roof, and it makes the rain sound like it is thundering down. Almost impossible to sleep with all the racket. I eventually got up to look out the windows, and realized that the roof was leaking and there were puddles in multiple areas on our floor. I went and slept in Paul's room so that I could hear him if he woke up from all the noise.

I also couldn't sleep because I kept thinking about how our house is on concrete pillars, and what if the construction is as dodgy as everything else in the house, and what if all the rain eroded the dirt around the footings and our house crashed to the ground! I know I was being a bit of a crazy, but it's hard to think straight with all that noise! Anyway, I woke up this morning with the house still in tact, so as usual all my stress was for naught.

The apartment we're moving into for January is on the ground floor, and so the rain won't be pelting directly on our ceiling. We actually asked the tenants on the second floor if the rain was bothersome, and they said yes, so that's a big reason why we chose the ground floor.

Right, for those of you who don't know, Chris and I are moving! We have had a pretty good year in our little house on the ocean, but it is quite expensive to be living here. And for all the things about this house that drive me batty, I will be somewhat sad to leave it. The view, for one, is beautiful. Walking distance to the Uni has been nice too. And we have a full size fridge, all new appliances, our own washer/dryer unit (virtually unheard of here). So, there will be a lot of major sacrifices.

However, there is a lot to recommend the apt. The apt. itself it cute & cozy. There are a lot of other families living in the building, including a couple really good friends. And at half of what we're paying now, we'd be silly not to try to reduce our spending in this economic crises. Also, there's A/C in the main room! Usually these places only have A/C in the bedrooms. So who cares that the apt. building is down a dodgy alley that I wouldn't be caught dead walking down at night. Or that there used to be dogs that ran loose and attacked dogs/people in the alley (the dogs were taken away last term after they attacked a student)! Besides I have a big vicious dog of my own, right?! And I'll be sure to post him outside often to let people know that THIS big vicious dog protects THIS apt. and anyone up to no good should just carry on!

The one thing that we're not completely comfortable with is the lack of bars on the BR windows. And ours is the apt closest to the road, so that anyone walking by can see in the windows. We have asked that this be rectified, and the landlady assures me that the task is underway. However, the job was measured LAST term, and still no bars have been installed. It's pretty much unheard of here not to have bars on the windows, so that's a bit sketchy to me. I guess we'll just keep them closed and locked all the time, with the blinds drawn. Who needs daylight in bedrooms anyway?! Bedrooms are for sleeping. LOL

Some students keep machetes in their apts, but I am so uncool with that. I find them terrifying. Lots of local people carry them around all the time and use them for everything. My weapon of choice is this siren contraption that if you pull the pin a siren goes off that is so loud it's disorienting. I think I'll keep that by my bed instead of a machete. Mom & I used it once in a shady little hotel in Amsterdam. We rigged it to the door so that we would know if someone tried to break in. We pulled the pin ourselves, just to see how loud it was and I almost couldn't concentrate well enough to get the pin back in. So the siren and Stan should keep us safe. Maybe the bars will go in before we leave next year, but maybe not.