We have made progress in settling into our little white house at the end of the long driveway off Juniper Road. Thank God! The first photo is of our 5 pm happy hour with our improvised table.
Steve, the head of maintenance, is my new best friend in South Bend. He was kind enough to say that he talked to his wife and thought about how he would feel if he was in our position. The ladies in the theology office gave us a gift package of chocolate covered fruit with a note saying how they didn't mean for us to feel like the first years of our marriage--in student life again. And that is the way it feels!
It will be very hot for three more days and then cool off next week. The a/c which replaced the one that died is just not enough to cool off the bedrooms down the hall. But by 11 pm the temperature has gone down below the 84 it is in the bedrooms so we can open windows and be comfortable enough. I don't like the constant white noise of a room a/c but have to tolerate it during the day.
I have one load of wash started and it is so good to have that option in our house. The dishwasher managed to bake the food on the dishes so we (Jim) will just do those by hand. The bathroom does not have an exhaust fan and the wet towels get very smelly quickly. I have towels in the dryer right now--after our showers.
How luxurious our apartment will seem when we get home! We have appreciated it before but will do so even more in October!
I had lunch with one of my friends from church yesterday and we had plenty to talk about for two hours--the time went very quickly. I popped into TJ Maxx and tried on clothes for the first time in 18 months. Sadly, the dresses looked cute on the hangers and terrible on me! But it was fun to shop a bit! We are going to a favorite restaurant tonight to celebrate our anniversary a few days earlier--and the end of our first week here. Grand Mere Inn in Stevensville is an unpretentious place right on Lake Michigan--with great seafood and a wonderful pate and bread served before the meal. Hope they still do that!
A few observations about ways South Bend differs from Princeton. We had forgotten about triple trailer trucks on the toll road. They are enormous and a bit scary. Then there are the multiple roundabouts on the edge of campus. We go through three of them on Douglas Road alone to get to our house. There are beggars on the street corners with signs proclaiming their homelessness and need for money. The trees are all green right to the edges of the branches. There is no sign of the omnipresent "flagging" left by our Princeton cicadas. We did not see posters requesting mask wearing at the Dollar Tree. Many people are not wearing masks although I have not been looking with great care for observance of that precaution. We wear masks at least. I was the only one in Salon Rouge yesterday wearing a mask. My stylist had been vaccinated.
So we have made progress this week. Jim met his class for the first time and seemed pleased with the students. One of them asked him if he came to ND just for this class and thanked him! Another one has a wife who is doing graduate work in Princeton. Still another needs to be excused to travel to Columbia because his grandmother just succumbed to Covid. He asked if Jim would be OK with a Zoom presence which another classmate will set up. Jim is fine with that as long as he is not the person in charge.
So progress is made. Another installment in our retirement journey!
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