Well we finally did it -- finally got a place of our own and moved in!!! 

And I love it. ^.^ ()

It is by no means perfect, but it has many of the qualities I was hoping we'd wind up getting, such as a window over the kitchen sink; on a canal in Cape Coral; washer and dryer in our own apartment; and the square footage is unbelievable. The place is huge. The only rooms with carpeting are the two bedrooms. It's ground level with a little patio through sliding glass doors, and a humble little dock on the humble little canal. There is also lush tropical landscaping surrounding our front door ... it truly is paradise. :)

However there is abundant evidence that not only has the apartment not been kept up, it has possibly been neglected by the landlord. There's also been tremendous news coverage over a scandal involving what the city of Cape Coral has been charging residents for water usage, a scandal involving a significant rate hike expected to take effect in October. We are also in a Category 1 storm surge area, which means that all it would take for us to experience storm surge (flooding for those of you who don't know) is a lousy Cat. 1 storm!! A tropical storm would be bad, a Cat. 1 would be terrible, and anything above a Cat. 1 would be devastating! That's mainly because we're so stinkin close to the Gulf. And the hurricanes haven't even begun to really rear their heads yet this season. Beryl weren't nothin but a reminder of what is yet to come.

So for as much as I love severe weather, I am sincerely hoping and praying that we are not in the path of any Wilmas or Charleys or Katrinas, because we only want to stay there a year, after which we plan on moving to higher ground. Until then, I will be content with distant tropical storms, and garden variety thunderstorms, thank you very much.

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad I no longer have to spend all my free time scouring the papers and the internet, scanning the 'for rent' signs up and down the street, worrying about what's going to happen to us if we don't find a place to live before our time is up at the old house. And I am here to tell you, we had NO problems leaving the house on Canal Street, the house, everything in it, and everything up and down the street it sits on. No looking back, especially not from me. I never wanted to move into that house in the first place. Now we can relax, now we can really spend some time enjoying each other and enjoying life in general, and live our life the way we want to live it. 

And no more sharing the refrigerator and bathroom, hooray!!! In fact, now we have a bathroom each, ha ha ha!!!