"Can you come down here to sign the paperwork?" the lady on the phone snapped at me, curtly.
"Uh...yeah, I suppose, sure."
"Good. We'd like you to do that." Click.
The hell?
Okay, I could do that, I guess, even though the website said I could do it over the phone. Even that I found to be archaic; the electric and cable allowed me to do everything involving shutoff and transfer of services online, within about five clicks and a simple typing-in of my forwarding address and the dates I wanted the service stopped or transferred.
So, sweaty and greasy from not having showered yet today and from cleaning, packing, and moving boxes for most of the late morning/early afternoon hours, I put on a pair of shorts, grabbed my keys and wallet, and drove over to City Hall -- where the utility offices are located in the basement (though, admittedly, a nice basement). I gave the lady at the counter my information, she pulled up my account and we filled out a sheet with my forwarding address, and I signed it.
"My house is owned by, well, our mayor, [name], so the account should revert back to him once my service ends," I said. She nodded; I'm not entirely sure she was actually paying attention.
The water will revert back to the landlord on the 20th -- eleven days from now, and the day that we're planning to be gone from Newton for good.
"While I'm here," I said, "can I schedule a large item pickup for the 19th before my service ends?"
I mean, I will have at least one broken couch and one broken chair to be picked up by the trash people, if not two couches -- as well as (I'm sure) some other odds and ends/things that won't fit in the cans.
"Ah, for that you'll have to call this number," she said, whipping a brochure at me.
You're fucking kidding, right? I'm already here in your office. At City Hall.
"Oh. Okay, thanks," I said, taking the brochure -- and I left.
I like this city, I do -- and I'm definitely going to miss it when I'm gone, especially once I'm living in the violence-ridden metropolis of Omaha -- but again, all of that stuff is so archaic and poorly-managed. While the lady was nice and set up everything for me regarding the water and trash disconnect, we were doing it with pen and paper -- WTF, Kansas? Please leap into the 21st century. Soon.
I went back out to the car and drove over to the post office -- I mean, I was already out, and I had stuff to do, so why not? I needed stamps and I needed to get one of the change of address forms so that could be processed sometime next week. I ended up getting two books of the new, limited-edition Jimi Hendrix stamps (because, well, they had them there):
Neat, right?
I did get the change of address forms to stick in the mail; they said you can do it online, too, but I tried that five years ago -- and they used to charge you a fee to do it online (I don't know if they still do or not). They don't with the paper forms -- you just fill them out and stick them back in the mailbox. Which is good.
As I was driving back home, I realized that, eh, I had some time, the weather was nice, and I could more than likely use a few things they had, so I decided to go over to Meridian Grocery (for what will probably be my last time there).
I've mentioned it before, but Meridian Grocery is the little discount grocery store here in Newton, owned and operated by the Mennonite church, which I love and adore. Not the church, mind you, but the store. The store's premise is that they get a lot of shipments of close-dated or just-expired stuff -- think of it like a low rent Big Lots -- and sell it all very cheaply, sometimes at half the price or lower compared to what you'd pay in Walmart or a similar grocery store. They also get huge shipments of local produce and/or farm fresh eggs, milk, cheeses, etc, as well as make a lot of in-house things such as bulk spices and baking mixes. It's an awesome little store, and a pretty well-kept secret in town -- they don't really advertise (other than, say, on Facebook), and as they're way out on the south end of town, they're never incredibly busy.
That being said, I mean, a lot of the stuff they sell is expired or set to expire, but common sense will tell you what is safe to buy past an expiration date. Soda, juices, canned goods/soups, coffee/tea, and other dry goods will last years past its expiration or sell-by date, but it's a sliding scale -- canned things good, cereals a little less good, snacks/crackers/chips a little less than the cereals, and stuff like salad dressings and mayonnaises = bad, don't trust it. Over the years I've learned what to get and what not to, and do pretty well. I can get $100 or so worth of groceries there for about $30 or $40 if I'm careful and know what I'm getting or looking for.
And, of course, unless I go back at some point next week, this would be the last time I'd ever get to shop there again -- which makes me sad, yes, to a certain extent.
I ended up getting about $30 of assorted things, not all of them foodstuffs. I found a new set of large burner pans (which I needed for my stove) for $2, some shampoo for 79 cents, etc. I picked up three bags of the white cheddar rice cakes I love, and some marked-down Slim Jims, stuff like that. But the holy grail was this:
I mentioned before that one of my close friends got us a Keurig for a wedding present. If you can't tell from the photo, these are boxes of K-cups for lemonade iced tea for said Keurig. Each box was on clearance for $1.49, and the store had hundreds of them, by the way it looked. I'm pretty sure tea doesn't expire for a long, long time, even tea of the K-cup variety. With these, Daisy and I will be able to make iced tea by the cup, when we want it, for a while. In fact, I might go get more of it next week if I can make it back over there -- it's about the only thing I'd really like to have a lot of on hand, ready to go for after the move.
Well, aside from money. Ahem.
I came home afterwards to find that my latest Amazon order -- another large bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil (which I'll need to put some of in the car before I drive it up to Omaha next weekend) and the next season of Scrubs -- had arrived. I put everything away, made something to eat, and sat down...tired. I woke up early this morning and had basically been working almost all day, running around and doing one thing or another. I'd barely had any time to decompress all day long. Slowly, I began to relax a bit and stretched out...before realizing that it was time for Daisy to get up before she went to work, and knew that if I wanted to actually talk to her tonight, I needed to get back to my room and turn on Skype. So, I did, and we did.
It's now an hour before I'm supposed to meet up with my friends at the donut shop, and despite the fact that I've been pumping myself full of coffee in an attempt to give myself more energy, said energy isn't coming. I really almost wish I hadn't agreed to meet with them, though I don't really mean that -- it's just that I'm so tired. Inexplicably tired, at that. Yes, I've been awake for a while, and I did do a fair amount of running around today, but it's not like I did any more than any other day of the week -- just more driving from place to place and doing little things. Driving doesn't make me tired, and generally I don't become exhausted for no reason. So eh.
I've decided that after the donuts, I'll more than likely just come back home to go to bed. I was originally planning to go to Walmart to get the supplies I needed, but it can wait another 24 hours or so. I have other stuff to do over the weekend anyway, right?
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