10. Getting cable TV, since reception without it will probably be limited. We get enough stations in Rhode Island using rabbit ears that I haven’t been able to justify cable.
9. Local health food stores that smell fabulous. With all those crunchy granolas in Vermont, there must be some great stores up there to replace Whole Foods. On a retirement budget, I may only be able to go there to inhale, but I’ll take it.
8. Reliable snow removal no matter how severe the storm is. They know how to do snow in Vermont. In Rhode Island, high school kids come around looking for work when there’s a dusting to a few inches and sleep in when there’s 8 to 12.
7. Sailing on Lake Champlain. That assumes that I meet someone with a boat who finds me entertaining enough to invite me on board. (Maybe this one should read: watching other people sailing on Lake Champlain.)
6. Really clean, fresh air. The good news about Rhode Island: a lot of intersecting Interstates means convenient travel. The bad news about Rhode Island: a lot of intersecting Interstates means lots of exhaust.
5. Watching my grandniece grow up. (She was the micro-preemie who weighed one pound seven ounces.) I see her twice a year now and I feel lucky that she remembers who I am. I want to become her favorite bis zia. (Sorry, Gloria.) Crazy cat lady will also do.
4. Day trips to the city to go shopping. (That means to Montreal, not downtown Burlington.)
3. Spending Thanksgivings with my family again. I just hope Jagdish doesn’t insist on sitting on his store stool at the dinner table.
2. Doing lunch with my sister and my niece. (Remember Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin, in full military gear, trudging around in the rain? “I just wanna go out to lunch.”) I don’t care about the wearing sandals part, especially since they’d probably be Birkenstocks anyway.
And the number one thing I look forward to when we relocate to Vermont after retirement:
1. Five words: Lake Champlain Chocolates Factory Store.
Head nod to David Letterman.
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Showing posts with label relocation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label relocation. Show all posts
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Retirement Relocation –Ten Things I Won’t Miss When We Move
10. A four-year supply of freebie address labels from dozens of charities. They’ll be obsolete and I know they’ll start arriving again within a year of when we arrive in Vermont.
9. The Starbucks three blocks from our house, because we’re tea drinkers, and because a Google search shows there are at least four Starbucks in the area of Vermont we’ll be moving to.
8. Prophylactic roto-rooting of our sewer line every year. (Oak tree roots, since you asked.)
7. Next-door neighbors who are or have been in litigation with the two other neighbors whose property abuts theirs. (You know it’s just a matter of time…) They’ve already complained about falling branches from (you guessed it) that oak tree.
6. Oak leaves a foot deep in the yard and on the back patio and acorns that turn the front walk into a roller rink every fall. (That’s another reason why the squirrels hang out on our front porch.)
5. Having my fourteen-year-old Honda Accord stolen right out of our garage. It still had a few good years left, but what it didn’t have was comprehensive coverage. Kaching!
4. The view of our neighbor’s yard filled with stuff, and I’m on the “tidier” side. (Yes, it’s the litigious ones.) The only thing they’re missing is the rusted-out chassis of a ’57 Chevy Bel Air.
3. Being the favorite stop for dogs that weren’t ready to do their business at the park at the end of the block, but finally get the urge on their walk home.
2. The unwieldy bar-coded trash barrel that the City of Providence makes us use. We have the small one and it’s still big enough to hold two dead bodies. (This is Providence, after all.)
And the number one thing I won’t miss when we relocate after retirement:
1. The bat that finds it’s way into the house every two years (squirrels good; bats bad.) Though I will miss watching Jagdish chase the bat around the house with a broom.
Head nod to David Letterman.
9. The Starbucks three blocks from our house, because we’re tea drinkers, and because a Google search shows there are at least four Starbucks in the area of Vermont we’ll be moving to.
8. Prophylactic roto-rooting of our sewer line every year. (Oak tree roots, since you asked.)
7. Next-door neighbors who are or have been in litigation with the two other neighbors whose property abuts theirs. (You know it’s just a matter of time…) They’ve already complained about falling branches from (you guessed it) that oak tree.
6. Oak leaves a foot deep in the yard and on the back patio and acorns that turn the front walk into a roller rink every fall. (That’s another reason why the squirrels hang out on our front porch.)
5. Having my fourteen-year-old Honda Accord stolen right out of our garage. It still had a few good years left, but what it didn’t have was comprehensive coverage. Kaching!
4. The view of our neighbor’s yard filled with stuff, and I’m on the “tidier” side. (Yes, it’s the litigious ones.) The only thing they’re missing is the rusted-out chassis of a ’57 Chevy Bel Air.
3. Being the favorite stop for dogs that weren’t ready to do their business at the park at the end of the block, but finally get the urge on their walk home.
2. The unwieldy bar-coded trash barrel that the City of Providence makes us use. We have the small one and it’s still big enough to hold two dead bodies. (This is Providence, after all.)
And the number one thing I won’t miss when we relocate after retirement:
1. The bat that finds it’s way into the house every two years (squirrels good; bats bad.) Though I will miss watching Jagdish chase the bat around the house with a broom.
Head nod to David Letterman.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Retirement Relocation –Ten Things I’ll Miss When We Move
10. My tailor, who knows my left arm is 3/4 inch longer than my right. (It’s from carrying a packed brief case cross town in Manhattan for 15 years.)
9. Six closets for my clothes (plus the walk in cedar closet.) Sigh.
8. Room for an 8 feet tall Christmas tree in our entry hall (plus the 19 inch star on top.) Another sigh.
7. The contractor I found when I chatted him up on the line at the check out at Ocean State Job Lot. For sure we’d better get a condo when we move.
6. My vet, who doesn’t make fun of me because I get blubbery every time one of my cats has a glitch in their blood work. (Can you say “artifact?” As in: a pricier retest showed that it wasn’t a real problem, just an artifact.)
5. The squirrels that hang out on our front porch and burrow into the stuffing of the pillows on our wicker furniture during rain storms. (And send me scurrying around after the storm to recover the poufs of stuffing that have blown into the neighbors’ yards.)
4. My hairdresser, and not just because he gives me great cuts every time. He’s a transplanted New Yorker, and when he says he’s gong to “the city,” he means Manhattan, not downtown Providence.
3. The jogging path up the center of Blackstone Boulevard, three blocks from our house. It was designed by the Olmstead’s landscape architecture firm. They also did Central Park in Manhattan, the Emerald Ring in Boston and Roger Williams Park in Providence. (And also Swan Point Cemetery, at the end of Blackstone Boulevard. So if you drop dead jogging, they can just roll you across the boulevard to your beautifully landscaped plot.)
2. Four primo ice cream shops within 30 minutes drive (two within 5 minutes.) One is located—you guessed it—at the other end of Blackstone Boulevard. Perfectly positioned for a reward after some exercise.
And the number one thing I’ll miss when we relocate after retirement:
1. Three words: Whole Foods Market. (There are two within a mile and a half of our house—one is within five blocks.) OK. it was a toss up between this and the primo ice cream shops for number one.
Head nod to David Letterman.
9. Six closets for my clothes (plus the walk in cedar closet.) Sigh.
8. Room for an 8 feet tall Christmas tree in our entry hall (plus the 19 inch star on top.) Another sigh.
7. The contractor I found when I chatted him up on the line at the check out at Ocean State Job Lot. For sure we’d better get a condo when we move.
6. My vet, who doesn’t make fun of me because I get blubbery every time one of my cats has a glitch in their blood work. (Can you say “artifact?” As in: a pricier retest showed that it wasn’t a real problem, just an artifact.)
5. The squirrels that hang out on our front porch and burrow into the stuffing of the pillows on our wicker furniture during rain storms. (And send me scurrying around after the storm to recover the poufs of stuffing that have blown into the neighbors’ yards.)
4. My hairdresser, and not just because he gives me great cuts every time. He’s a transplanted New Yorker, and when he says he’s gong to “the city,” he means Manhattan, not downtown Providence.
3. The jogging path up the center of Blackstone Boulevard, three blocks from our house. It was designed by the Olmstead’s landscape architecture firm. They also did Central Park in Manhattan, the Emerald Ring in Boston and Roger Williams Park in Providence. (And also Swan Point Cemetery, at the end of Blackstone Boulevard. So if you drop dead jogging, they can just roll you across the boulevard to your beautifully landscaped plot.)
2. Four primo ice cream shops within 30 minutes drive (two within 5 minutes.) One is located—you guessed it—at the other end of Blackstone Boulevard. Perfectly positioned for a reward after some exercise.
And the number one thing I’ll miss when we relocate after retirement:
1. Three words: Whole Foods Market. (There are two within a mile and a half of our house—one is within five blocks.) OK. it was a toss up between this and the primo ice cream shops for number one.
Head nod to David Letterman.
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