A Richmond Year

One neighbor

Is it impolite to say that you have a hot neighbor? Especially if she’s really friendly?

Local services

Got the electricity and water in our name. Garbage is private — weird. Our neighbors all have different color garbage cans depending on which company they use. I wonder if pickup is the same day for everyone. I put my cans out when I saw other people do it (regardless of color) and a few hours later my trash was gone. So that works.

Leaf pickup. Hmm. In Roanoke you just swept them into the street and the city magically made the piles disappear on a particular weekend. Here I have no clue. Some neighbors leave a line of bags off their curb, others just sweep piles into the street. Is pickup private? A guy offered to clean up my leaves for $200. No, thanks. Despite the fact that I rent, we have a lot of trees in the yard. If he vaccuumed them all up in a few days the ground would be covered again.

I’ve got a rake and a leaf blower, thankyouverymuch. And now I have big piles of leaves.

Mixed switches

There are a lot of light switches in this house, many of which appear to do nothing. I see myself spending considerable time figuring things out.

Air mattresses

Air mattresses always leak. Doesn’t matter the brand or the warranty; I’ve used a bunch. They always leak.

Shoes

The Boy learned first-hand why we said, “Wear shoes if you go out.”

Dogs

Our new neighbors have dogs — dogs that are louder than ours. This is a good thing.

The move begins

Began the move with just the essentials, including two borrowed air mattresses and a borrowed card table and chairs. Camping out, it is, but with nice bathrooms and a great kitchen. Too bad we have, like, three small pots and some plastic dishes. That’ll change in a few weeks.

Lots of beech trees. Lots. Parked and were attacked from above by falling beech nuts. The ground is covered with leaves and nut shells; the backyard has almost zero grass. That’s OK, as long as we don’t plan on walking outside without shoes.

Verizon arrives

Verizon came not only on time, but in the first five minutes of the three hour window. Fios is now Fiosing — a 15 megbit connection. Yay! Richmond is a real city, and this is another reminder. Also, the fact that there are shopping centers every three blocks, each with a new set of stores. Way cool. Oh, and if you use Microsoft or Google maps, you can view live traffic conditions — not available for your more provincial areas.

Found a house

Finding a house in a new city is a challenge. We decided to rent till we knew where we wanted to live. Found a great house with a landlord who seemed human. It’s not far from the Short Pump mall, which I’m sure has a fancier name like “The Shops at Short Pump.” It’s a good landmark, anyway.

The house has an alarm. “What’s the crime like around here?” Landlord sniffs. “This is the West End.” Ah. The mom I met in the Children’s Museum said something similar. Good. I can get used to answering “The West End. And you?” when people ask where we live.

New school

The Boy loves his potential new school. Hopefully it’ll love him, too. We got the application and will send it in and wait.