Where does all the electricity go?

I moved out of my New York City apartment on December 27th. When I left my apartment I turned off the lights, unplugged the air conditioners and hit road for Wisconsin. Since my apartment in NYC still hasn’t sold, I have to pay utilities. After a over a month of not living in the apartment (a one bedroom apartment) here is this scoop on my electric bill. By the way, for those who are curious my electric utilities company is Con Edison. My heat is paid for my the building co-op and the only things I left plugged in are my refrigerator and stove (my stove is gas so we’re talking about the clock here). My electric bill when I was living there $88…when I wasn’t living ther $55. So evidently, my lights (many halogen), stereo, TV, VCR, cable modems, computer (which I kept on all the time), phone charger, various clocks, microwave, dishwasher, treadmill, hair dryer, electric toothbrush (also plugged in all the time) only cost about $30 dollars. That means my refrigerator and range clock costs $55 dollars. OK, let’s assume some connection fees. Still, $55 for a refrigerator, range clock and connection fees. I think someone just sold me the Brooklyn bridge!

I’ll have another cup of coffee please

I have recently discovered a quaint little coffee/wine shop here in Madison. Actually, I think it is a small local chain started by local folks. Their web site is awful, but amusing. Anyway, I was so happy to find an alternative to “The Bucks” as we would call it in New York City.

In New York City, The Bucks was everywhere and small independent coffee shops were rare - it is very expensive to lease the space. There were four Bucks just within a block of where I worked in mid-town Manhattan. If I wanted something else, I would go all the way to lower east side of Manhattan to have a nice cup of coffee from and a charming independent coffee shop with a comfortable atmosphere and chairs. It also helped that it was down the street from the best donut shop in the world, and I am not kidding about that.

So, back to Madison…The Bucks isn’t so big here and I like that. This new coffee shop is just down the road from where I am staying. It’s called Barriques (8410 Old Sauk). They have another shop near me also but a little further in Middleton called Wine and Spirits (1901 Cayuga St.). Now I must admit the added benefit to these shops is that they also sell a nice selection of wine. Coffee and wine, I am set for the day! The staff may not be the polished machine you get in The Bucks but they get the job done. In addition, they have wireless and a sit-and-read-the-Sunday-paper atmosphere. So, here’s to Madison for bucking The Bucks.

Have we hit the record yet?

Yesterday, we had a big snow storm. Other than the blizzard I flew into in Denver Christmas 2006, this was my biggest. It was so big our company closed down at 1:00. Now for those of you in other parts of the US where closing due to snow is not uncommon even for an inch or so (yes, I am talking about you New York City), the folks in Wisconsin pride themselves on toughing it out through a storm. So when companies close here, it’s big deal!

Now if you read my previous posts you will know how nervous I was about these storms and how I would be stocking up on food supplies before hand. Well, somehow between then and now, I grew a little lax. First of all, since I had managed to drive alright in the snow and ice since I have been here, I thought nothing of driving to work yesterday. Getting to work was not bad, driving home…well all I can say is that I am pleasantly surprised my little Chevrolet made it (granted I only have about a half mile drive), but it was unplowed and hilly…go Cavalier. Second, I had little food in the house. So, as soon as I got home, I called around until I found a restaurant that would deliver.  An hour or so later a not too warm pizza arrived at my door. I didn’t care, I was so happy, I gave the driver a nice tip. So, I didn’t starve this time….Another crisis averted.

Throughout the entire time I have been in Wisconsin, I have literally had about 50 people tell me that this much snow wasn’t normal. After the 50th time, I got it, stop already. You can tell me that this isn’t normal all you want, but the fact is this is all I know about Wisconsin, it snows here…A LOT!

So apparently, Madison is close to breaking a record for snow fall. Now folks are wanting it to snow more to pass the record. All I can say at this point is…tell me when it’s over.

Little House on the Prairie

Once again I found a house I felt I could call my home in Madison, WI. I put down an offer and it was accepted. I was a little nervous at first but in the end it seemed the perfect little abode for me. This little gem is a new prairie style home, on the prairie and, I sheepishly admit, part of the frontier advancing the urban sprawl. OK, I am hoping you conservationists will forgive me a bit, but to redeem myself it is about as close as I could get to work without actually living in the business park where our office building is located. So, with my short commute, I can conserve fuel.

Buying a house though is not without some strife. Actually it is the selling that is causing me strife. I am still selling my apartment in New York City. Just to put it in perspective, we were supposed to close in New York by January 31st. It is a week later and no idea of when the closing will occur. Anyone who has bought or sold an apartment in NYC knows how complicated it can be. Especially, if you are buying or selling a co-op unit where not only do you have a buyer, the buyer’s real estate agent and attorney to contend with, you have the co-op managing agent that has to review the buyer’s application (an application that is about an inch thick), and the co-op board (basically one’s soon to be neighbors who will know more about you than your mother once the process is complete). Both managing company and co-op board has to approve the buyer before the sale can close. The closing then becomes one big event with the buyer, their agent and attorney, my agent and attorney, the managing company, the bank representatives, and me…and the closing can take hours. I love New York!

Back to my Little House on the Prairie, I had to inform the seller of my difficulties closing in New York, so that he had the opportunity to decide whether he wanted to wait or look for another buyer. He decided to wait and I am immensely grateful.

So at this time I am paying my mortgage in New York and for my temporary housing in Wisconsin. So, it’s understandable that I am biting my nails a bit waiting to close in New York. It could be better, and it could be worse (I have a colleague who also came from back east whose home sale fell through). I have done what I can to expedite the process just short of annoying the heck out of my real estate agent, attorney, bank, and the managing company. OK, I may have annoyed some of them already…or all of them. For the rest I will just have to bear it, stop biting my nails and go along for the ride…it’s not over until it’s over…but, please be over soon!!!!!!!!!!!

How time flies

Yes, it has been too long since I have entered a new post. I am pretty certain I have very few readers, but to those few, I apologize. Since the 19th I have been on the re-location merry-go-round. I found another house (see “Little House on the Prairie” post) and survived my first big snow storm (see “Have we hit the record yet?” post). And, remember, not only have I moved to Madison, Wisconsin but on top of all this I started a new job with a new company.

With everything going on at once, I keeping thinking about a movie I saw. How many remember the move “Romancing the Stone”? There is a scene Kathleen Turner slips down a muddy hill, of course she is screaming the entire way down. Soon after Michael Douglas falls down the same muddy hill but he is laughing all the way down. That’s how I see all this. I am slipping down a muddy hill and there is nothing I can do about it. Now I could be screaming, and occasionally I want to, but I could also laugh about it all and just enjoy the ride. I may not be able to do much about all that is going on around me, and I may get a little dirty along the way, but as hectic as all this has been, so far, I am still laughing…all the way down the hill…it is a wild ride!

I’m crying uncle!

When I first moved to New York City, I was a bit anxious about the winters. I had heard they could get cold, and I had up until then lived in fairly temperate climates. I moved there in the spring and as winter approached, I braced for the cold, but it wasn’t bad at all, in fact I didn’t need to buy a warmer coat, long underwear, or a ski mask that covered everything but my eyes. This was doable, I thought. What was everyone talking about? Cold winters, I don’t think so. I heard a few folks say it was uncommon to be so warm in the winter that year, but still, I thought, how much worse could it get.

So, the next year, I was not so anxious about the coming winter…until it came. OK, I got it then. It gets cold and not just cold but raw. There is something about the combination of the moisture and wind that just bites, and bites hard. Every winter after that, that I was in New York City, I complained about the winters and after a few years I wanted to live anywhere else, because in New York City you’re in the weather every day. You can’t get around without spending a considerable amount of time outside, and you can’t escape it.

When I moved to Wisconsin I knew it got cold here. I looked at the weather trends and averages over the year calculating whether I would survive the weather. I noticed when I visited that although it was warmer in New York City at that time, it seemed warmer in Wisconsin. So, I thought how bad can it get, after all I won’t have to be out in the weather nearly as much. Pretty much I would just be running back and forth to my car. Well I’m telling you at zero degrees Fahrenheit during the day, I have no words to describe how cold that feels. I can’t remember any day I was in New York City that would seem even close to how cold I felt today. And evidently even just running back and forth to one’s car is still too much time to be in this kind of weather.

So, all those winters I spent complaining about New York City’s endless, raw winters, I apologize. Wisconsin has you beat NYC…by a long shot.

Update on the new old-homestead

Over a week ago I had put an offer on a house. The offer wasn’t accepted and I decided to consider other options. One thing I have learned from all my other moves is to be careful to explore enough of a new location and pick a place where you would feel entirely comfortable or close to entirely comfortable, because you will forever be regretting it’s faults if you don’t.

I have been looking for a house in the Madison area for two months now. I started looking before I moved here, flying out to meet with my oh-so-patient agent. So far I have gone from considering the old trendy area with one car garage remodeled old-homes you would find on ‘This Old House’; to the new trendy area with streets lined with Frank Lloyd Wright inspired bungalows and tiny lots; to building my own house on the prairie; to the number one town in America to live according to Money magazine. I have journeyed from neighborhood to neighborhood looking for the right house (to put this in perspective Madison is not that big). I keep thinking I have exhausted my options. But no, there are still options I haven’t considered. So, this weekend I am continuing my search; one more neighborhood; one more house; searching for that place to call home.

My sister told me so

Today I experienced my first significant snow storm since I move to Madison, WI. When I left work this evening I had two to three inches of snow on my car. I thought, no problem, I will just brush it off and be on my way. Yea, right. So, under the two to three inches of snow is a layer of ice frozen to the windshield. So I start my car and turn up my defroster…and scrape…and scrape…and scrape.

Two weeks ago my sister gave me a living-in-snow-country shopping list and a good scraper with a long handle was at the top of the list (if only I had one tonight). She also included over-gloves (never heard of such a thing) and a lock warmer (I had one about 15 years ago, but couldn’t find one so I bought a lighter as a substitute - no laughing please).

Now in my defense, the weather has not been very agreeable for driving around trying to find these items. Even though I managed to find time to seek out art galleries, boutique dress shops and a specialty wine store that is beside the point. If anyone has ever relocated across country, they know about all the details, details, details that go into moving and one is for weeks packing, unpacking, changing addresses, registering cars, finding a home, etc. let alone figuring out where everything is; a dry cleaner, grocery store, pharmacy, Starbucks. It’s hard keeping all this in one’s head and every weekend then becomes running the I-just-moved-here errands.

This will be my third time moving cross country, four if one counts moving from New Jersey to New York which most New Yorkers consider that moving from another country. One would think I have this moving thing down, but I am still sometimes overwhelmed by all the details. And even though I still have more than a few things on my move list to do, I’m OK with it. Eventually they will get done, I don’t have frostbite yet, and I know where I can get a great chocolate chip cookie to make it all seem a little better.

Insider Scoop - best time to shop in Wisconsin

New York City is a shopping Mecca. Now, I am not much of a shopper. In fact, all the time I was in New York, once I found shops that would consistently have what I wanted and needed, I almost exclusively shopped at those places. I am not a big fan of crowds, malls and the general sale shopping mania.

When I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, I only brought essentials, actually only what I could fit in my car (almost all my worldly possessions are in a storage warehouse on Long Island). So, no surprise that I discovered I needed a few more things after I arrived. The first weekend I found a couple great specialty shops (see posting under “Best Picks”), but this time of year is a bad time to buy clothes, the stores are reducing inventory, in order to take inventory and prepare for the next season of clothes.

I avoided the malls (as stated early I don’t like crowds and malls), but the second weekend I was still in need of a few more clothing items. So, I set out and I discovered a great time to shop this weekend…during the Packers game! This is no disrespect to the Packers or Wisconsin’s overwhelming support and enthusiasm for the team and the sport. But, being new to the area, Packer fever hasn’t set in. And so, I went to the mall, found an amazing parking spot and got personal service and a lot of attention. In return, I want to thank the people at the White House / Black Market dress shop in the Greenway Station mall, Renee who was my personal shopper there for an hour, and the citizens of Wisconsin for loving the Packers. And, who knows maybe someday I will become one of those fans too.

Driving Miss Daisy, NOT

I have several times referred to driving in New York City as a “contact sport.” One thing anyone who drives in New York must have is patience, not just with other drivers, but with pedestrians as well. This is not to say that New Yorkers won’t speed or engage in one of their favorite past-times, honking. But when it comes to traffic, patience is crucial.

If a New York driver wants to get around you, I have never in the time I was there had a driver ride my tail in an effort to get me to speed up. Now in NYC it could seem that everyone rides your tail since the traffic is so dense, but when its clear to go around generally folks go around no gesturing needed. There is so much more to be concerned about when driving in NYC that a driver has to be hyper-vigilant. For instance, although traffic lights are usually obeyed (by the way you can’t turn right on a red light in NYC), stop signs are sometimes merely a suggestion and I have often seen others run them, so I am super cautious about that to the dismay of some Madison drivers who have had to wait while I ensure no-one is going to barrel through a stop sign. Also, driving within lanes seems to be optional in NYC (especially to cab drivers), and double parking is a New Yorker’s inalienable right (even if it means blocking both sides of a road so traffic can’t get through)…patience, patience.

The most significant concern while driving in NYC are pedestrians. They rule, NO MATTER WHAT. NYC is a walking city and pedestrians have the right-of-way — in every situation — they will ignore walk signals, and cross in the middle of a road, so drivers learn to be extra cautious and yield. I rarely see vehicles complain (penalties are high and most folks are NYC pedestrians too). If it is raining or snowing and a pedestrian is crossing a street or parking lot, no matter how long one has to wait in a car for the parade of people, pedestrians deserve the right-of-way. After all, we are sitting in a nice, dry, warm car. It’s all patience, patience, patience.