New home in New York

It's been many weeks since we last posted, but they have been busy weeks. We are finally settling into our new New York home. There is so much to say about the last two months, perhaps I should just describe things.

Moving was very stressful for everyone. During the truck-packing process, Chris got the flu. He basically muscled his way through the days and collapsed at night. Thanks to our friends, in particular Serena, Elizabeth, Martin, and Chris W., we got the moving truck packed, the house cleaned, and the kids, cats, and catatonic parents on the plane! Traveling went well considering the logistics of it all. Nobody slept much, one of the cats tried to escape from under the seat on the plane, and we arrived at our new house without car or possessions, but somehow it worked.

We waited about 10 days for our stuff, and another week for our car, but it all arrived more or less intact. Sleeping on air mattresses wasn't fun after a few days, and Duncan in particular seemed to miss his bed. Our neighbors were kind enough to loan us their car on occasion so we could get essentials.

Luckily our apartment has a great yard and backs up into the forest, so we can spend lots of time outdoors with the kids, because the place is SMALL. Probably no more than 700 square feet. The building is basically a big cube, with 6 apartments and a basement. We are on the same level as the basement and north-facing, so we have to learn to work with dampness and possible flooding. It is very green here and we see trees out of every window. The yard has nice flowers (though almost gone already) and we discovered spearmint and lemon balm outside our door so Duncan can help make tea. Many many more insects than in Sac, which has been a delight for him also.

50 feet from our door and we are in the forest and our house is invisible (though I've been told in winter the vista will extend quite a bit). Down the slope of the forest path we meet Pine Brook, already a favorite place for the kids. A bit farther down the brook and we find the pond, chlorinated for swimming and with a nice sand beach. It has been a dry and hot summer apparently, though we are enjoying what to us former Sacramentans is a very temperate climate so far. Only a few days where I thought it was too humid. Of course, our big challenge will be learning about winter here.

Chris walks to work and comes home for lunch every day. Across the street from work is the Pfeiffer Center garden where we can pick vegetables to buy, and literally next door to our house is the natural foods co-op. So we are doing very little driving, mostly on weekends to run errands. We seem to take daily walks, especially because Duncan demands to do so. He revels in throwing sticks and rocks off of the forest paths, and he and Rebecca love digging and wading in the brook.

A neighbor has a bunny, Silverfoot, in a hutch in the yard and there is a rotund and friendly cat, Otto, who used to live in our apartment. Our cats are now indoor cats as they are getting rather elderly. Both survived traveling quite well though they were visibly relieved when the bed and baby gates arrived, restoring the sanctuary of our room.

Neighbors include TWO sets of twins and a five year old boy. Duncan has many new friends to play with, and the two year old twins next door are very enamored of Rebecca. (She sometimes screams in advance when she sees them coming, as they are often a little rough in their loving hugs.)

Funny things about New York:
People aren't rude so much as they expect you to know where you are going and how things work without being told. I have seen several shops with no posted hours of business, and I could not find the children's section of the local library without asking for help.

You can't get there from here. There are no straight routes to anywhere. Also, almost every road is known both by a name and a route number, so there are some amazingly large conglomerations of street signs at junctions. Toll roads. No turning right on red lights. Thruways. Parkways. What is a California transplant to do??