Unpacked some boxes, put together some furniture, entertainment center, etc. Visited Helen, GA with the Holmans. If you're ever in NE GA, Helen is the touristy place to go. It used to be a logging town (like most other towns around here), but when the logging dried up in the 60s it decided to remake itself as a Bavarian-style village. All the streets are now "Strasses" and all the buildings are Bavarian-style timber frame. The three popular activities in Helen are 1) shopping, 2) tubing down the Chattahoochee River in a big neon inner tube, which only costs $3 and looks like LOTS of fun (NOT sarcastic), and 3) drinking beer. Since we didn't bring water clothes and the Holmans generally don't drink, we were stuck with option #1.
HOLD EVERYTHING!!! MAJOR WILDLIFE SIGHTING!!! On the way to Helen the lead Holman vehicle spotted a bear cub next to the road. They slowed down as they drove by it, but didn't point it out or anything so we in the trailing vehicle didn't notice it. I explored the wilderness of Oregon for 5 years before I finally caught just a glimpse of a bear, and they see one on our first full day here. This bodes well.
(Minor wildlife sighting... when we arrived at our new house yesterday there was a spotted fawn in the driveway. It was seen at least 4 times that day.)
We found a few problems with our new place yesterday:
1) The door out to the garage is half-covered in mold on both the inside and outside. By half-covered, I mean, the lower half is literally COVERED in blue-green mold! Gross. The mold is probably caused by the following problems:
2a) There is a hole in the HVAC ductwork in the garage. Not a ripped hole, but a purposefully and skillfully-cut hole, perfectly round, where a branch should join into the main line, but there is no branch. Instead, cold air is pouring into the garage (and surely, out the garage door).
and, 2b) The washer/dryer hookups are right above the garage. The dryer vent hose runs through the floor, into the middle of the garage, and straight down onto the garage floor, meaning that the hot, moist air from the dryer just fills up the garage when the dryer runs.
3) We don't have a mailbox. We found this out when we stopped by the post office yesterday to get money orders to pay our rental fees. The lady said "Are you the ones who moved into the Sunset place? We've been getting mail for you but we don't deliver to there." Unexpected.
We were supposed to get the utilities transferred to our names today, but we didn't make it back from Helen in time. Probably OK, since we don't have a mailing address to send bills to anyway. We didn't let that stop us from signing up for internet service though. They will install it the day after tomorrow (which is Thursday), so I'll finally be able to update the blog (which of course I didn't update until now, Sunday night, or really, 230 Monday Morning).
Tonight, after the in-laws left, we stayed up late and got hungry, and without having any groceries yet that means one thing... Waffle House! It had been about 3 years since I had eaten at Waffle House, and the Texas Cheesesteak with hashbrowns scattered smothered and covered was just as good as I remembered! On the way out, I saw a guy at the bar with a fiddle case. I asked him if he knew anybody who repaired instruments (a peg fell out of place when I shipped my fiddle), and he said he could fix it. He also had A LOT of other stuff to say, and I let him because I couldn't get a word in edgewise, so I stood in the parking lot listening to him for about 45 minutes. I won't relate the whole experience, but suffice it to say I have decided NOT to have him work on my stuff, mainly because he threw up a couple red flags as he talked: 1) his friends call him "Snake", and 2) he is 24 and his girlfriend is still in high school. More importantly, he didn't seem the least bit embarrassed or concerned about telling a complete stranger this (AND MUCH MORE!) information, so I just really don't trust him. But I guess since he's the only person I've met, he's my new Georgia best friend.
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