Inside My Velvet Rope

The management of our apartment building mailed us notices detailing the electrical work they intend to do to the building as soon as the proposal is approved by the city. They finally plan to upgrade the wiring and install circuit breakers, which is GREAT and long overdue.

But...

This will most likely mean an increase in rent to cover the cost of the work (just like when they installed a new boiler a couple of years ago).

AND...

Instead of electricity being included in our rent as it is now, they will begin charging each apartment individually for its electricity usage.

Now I am stressed about the effect this will have on my already tight budget. That could spell out the end of being able to put money into savings each month, not to mention losing the modest $20 a week I have for spending money.

I dislike feeling stress over money. I like being calm and knowing I have enough. My brain comes up with the worst case scenario, however.

What if I considered a more positive set of possibilities?

What if I continue to have enough, even though I don't know how that will be possible? (I don't have to know how, just like I don't know for sure the worst case will happen.)

What if we are able to make everything be alright?

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Wednesday, 18 August 2010, 4:17 PM

Now that I am calmer, I have re-read the documentation. They are not proposing an increase in the rent (yet); they are simply detailing the work to be done and asking for our comments. I wrote that I approve and asked, "Now that electricity will not be included in our rent, by how much will our rent be reduced?"

Ha ha, I know. But at least I am putting it out there, instead of hoping they will think about that on their own.

A while back I took a wicked fall off Twyla after a sneak attack by a pothole. My helmet saved me from a nasty head injury, if the hefty crack in the padding was any indication. Until then Ms. T insisted she didn't need a bike helmet. Seeing me take that fall and walk away from it changed her mind.

It's the weekend! Time to go out and play!

This shot doesn't show the brown cropped leggings or the wooden bracelet, but they are there.

Ciao!

A review of a book slave2tehtink and anyone else interested in early American history may find fascinating.

In the decades before the Declaration of Independence, thousands of American colonists visited London. Wealthy Southern plantation owners and New England merchants, husbands and wives, children and slaves all arrived in what was thought to be the most exciting city in the world. Some went shopping for exquisite silver, fashionable furniture and the latest books; others traded their goods and engaged in political arguments in noisy coffee houses. A sojourn in London was part of the education of the sons (and sometimes daughters) of wealthy colonial families because, as one contemporary observed, “more is learnt of mankind here in a month than can be in a year in any other part of the world.”

~ From a NY Times Book Review by Andrea Wulf. When London was Capital of America, by Julie Favell.

Read the rest on the NY Times website.

I particularly like the tale of the slave who got himself arrested (deliberately?) just before his master was set to return to America, served his time, and was released a free man who remained in Britain.

Hello, from Hancock, NY! T and I decided to go away for two days and one night upstate. A former coworker and her husband own The Cranberry Inn Bed and Breakfast, where we are staying, tonight. We have a comfy room upstairs, complete with A/C. I can hardly wait to kick back there and relax with my wine coolers and book.

Hancock is a fairly small town. So far we are the only splash of color we've seen, *winkwinknudgenudge*. The people seem nice enough, though.

Time for dinner!