It looks like it will take another 40 days to get settled. Probably longer; packing actually took me most of a year.

Bill hung a few pictures and installed the shades on Wednesday afternoon. He worked for two hours. I bought the kind you can raise from the bottom and lower from the top, the idea being I could hide the parking lot but still get lots of light and see the view. The bad part about the shades is the dust created by the installation. I spent much of Thursday and Friday cleaning. I’ll have to do it again when the shade for the door arrives. I was foolish not to have ordered it at the same time. I had trouble understanding how it would work. Bill told me you just raise it when you want to go out. I’m not much of an outdoor person; at least not in hot sunshine, so it probably won’t matter.

Sari was here when Bill arrived and helped me get these pictures hung. Remember the wall with the green peacock feathers? This is the wall. Not so dazzling as the feathers, but much easier for me to live with.  So I now have a living-dining room combination. I may replace the table and chairs with something smaller, but I’ve already spent so much money I won’t be ready to do it soon.

While Sari was here she made some other suggestions about moving the furniture. She has a great eye. After I finished most of the dust removal from the living-dining room I started moving furniture. I was going to wait until I enticed a strong, young man to come and help me (ha ha!) but decided I couldn’t wait any longer. With the help of those large coaster things, I think called Move-alls, and lots of hard work, I did the job. Sari suggested switching the rugs, requiring removing the furniture from each and rolling up the rugs. I removed all the shelves and drawers from the two large cabinets, put the Move-alls under them and pushed them off the rug. I had to remove the table and chairs and the coffee table, then figure out where to put all the stuff so I could get the rugs laid again. Anyhow, I survived and I’m very happy with the result. It now feels like an orderly room. Still have to hang the rest of the pictures–next week, I hope.

The point of all this, besides making me feel good, was to be able to put things in the two cabinets. I decided to put the books and pottery I made behind the glass doors. Then I put some of my larger art books on one of the open shelves and freed up some space that was badly needed in the other bookcases. Also moved a few pieces from the built-in shelves, which were much too crowded. After that I was able to get all the books put away, more or less by subject matter, oversize items not included.

When I removed the drawers from the cabinet I found the opera glasses that I hadn’t seen for at least twelve years. I knew I owned them and couldn’t figure out what happened. For years, each time I went to a play or opera I searched for them, finally giving up when I moved to Pittsburgh. I’ve started pulling other drawers hoping to find the MP3 player I haven’t seen for a year or more.

One of the more annoying things, besides the concrete, was the radio. We have three public radio stations here, one classical music, one folk, pop and I don’t know what, and one news. I have for many years awakened to the news on public radio. In most of the apartment I could only get the classical music station. Only in the kitchen and bathroom, both rooms in the inner part of the apartment, was I able to tune in the news station. It’s been bothering me since I moved in. Today I decided to try wrapping the radio in aluminum foil. Voila, it worked and I am a happy woman.