Notes from Spartanburg

Hi, everybody and a very Happy Holiday season. Hope everyone is well and reasonably happy. (One can’t ask for miracles.) I thought it was time to give you an update on our exciting, frustrating and just plain weird in some instances adventures.

The Good

Summer is definitely over, and fall/winter is upon us. It means much cooler temperatures, far less bugs and clear nights with pretty sunsets. You see the sky more in that we did in Pawling. Spartanburg has exactly three buildings that are over 10 stories tall so mostly you have to contend with the mighty oaks in the area. Towards the end of the summer as the weather cooled down, we had some spectacular sunsets with big white clouds and purple/pink horizons. Very different from the ones I’m used to in the northeast. Plans on work on the house are progressing, but surprisingly renovation prices in this area are not much lower than they are in New York. Plus, it’s sometimes difficult to set up a contractor because there is so much construction and new housing going on in the area.

The puppies have learned to go outside and most of the time they try to tell us when they need to go. Not always but most of the time. We have a family of squirrels that live in the trees around the property and initially they ran when they saw the puppies, but they quickly figured out that the dogs were leashed, and they weren’t, so they sit on the fence and make snarky comments to Selena and Shakira or run along the fence back and forth which drives the puppies absolutely bonkers.

We’ve met our neighbors and they are lovely but thank God, they don’t drop in on you. Fred who is 83 and lives next door, clued me in on the gossip and history of the family that owned the home before us. Patty, who lives across the street with her daughter and son in law, moved into this development when it first opened. They always wave and say hello.  

Plumbing problems are all fixed and electrical work is completed. Ed and I are “discussing” the various renovation projects and I’m dreaming about what I’m going to do in the front and back yards. It will take me yearrrrs!!!

The Bad

I really can’t think of anything that is really that bad. Annoying maybe but not really bad. Annoyance #1. Things move slower than they do in NY. Fast food places abound but getting the food quickly is something entirely different. I was waiting to get a breakfast sandwich at one of the McDonalds in the area and I had time to email a complaint to McDonald HQ about the service and get a response (!) before I got the bloody sandwich. More about that later. Annoyance#2 – Leaves, leaves, leaves. We had about 6 large oaks on the property when we got here. We’re now down to four. The one in the back was creaking and dropping branches every day. It was Russian roulette as to when it would go. We had that one taken down which took all week (as I said, speed is not a concept down here) and we have one tree removed that was way too close to the house. The leaves from the trees smothered the lawn and we had no grass at all but between the tree surgery and finding someone to clean up the leaves, the lawn is slowing recovering. Landscaping is the next issue.

The Ugly

We had a dusting of snow in the area last week. Less than two inches, people. You would think that they were expecting Hurricane Sandy. Schools were closed or delayed, churches…churches(!!) were closed and there were constant traffic updates about the hundreds of accidents that had occurred on the highway. One of the many things about being retired is that you don’t have to go out unless you want to and we didn’t. It was cool enough to wear a jacket, but people are seriously schizoid down here. I’m sorry but you just don’t wear shorts and an overcoat or flip-flops and a down jacket or UGG boots, shorts and a sweatshirt. It’s not just wrong, it’s stupid. 48 hours later, there was not a lick of snow on the ground, but you should have heard them telling their “snow” stories.

Love,

Ed, Carolyn, Selena and Shakira