It's Over At Last

About two weeks ago, I finally closed the chapter of my life as a bachelor with a swinging apartment. Well, not actually swinging apartment. More like a disaster area apartment. Posters on the wall, old letters and bills on the floor, clothes strewn about; that was my apartment.

But for all the mess, it was my home for sixteen years. As someone used to say, it was the fortress of solitude. A place that made me safe from all the pains of the world, real or imagined. A place where I could find myself. A place where I could find the Pin@y in me. A place to grow up.

The apartment needed some work when I began occupying it. It needed a new coat of paint. The linoleum floors needed to be changed. The green carpet was about five years younger than I am. The plumbing over time leaked and caused a hole in the plaster over the garage.

Everything was symbolized by the hot water faucet would leak over time. The faucet's gasket would be destroyed by the hot water and the constant on / off maneuvering of the faucet such that the faucet leaked. When I met the SO, I learned that dripping faucets represented money leaving the house. I eventually closed the faucet's supply line just so I could save the hot water. Yup, no hot water in the sink when I did the dishes. That meant that I got the best dishwasher liquid, Joy.

The oven has been broken since the late 1990's. All I remember is that I tried to clean it with a cleaner based on sodium hydroxide. I covered all the heating elements except for the back side. That side got some hydroxide and burned through the heating element. Voila! No oven. I used to cook chicken thighs and legs with BBQ sauce. Without the oven, I had to give way. Eventually, I stopped cooking except for boiling water where I could warm up some bread.

By the time I left, the bedroom apartment had become a storage unit. I ended up tossing so much stuff that it was not even funny. Some materials were placed outside on a table. The material usually found someone willing to take them. I just hope that the materials helped them out just as they did to me.

My books have had to go to a storage area. I always wanted a library. But the storage is $250 per year. I don't know where I can put those books. Maybe in a smaller location. Hopefully.

On Sunday morning, I learned about the power of orange cleaners. I sprayed the oven with the cleaner overnight Saturday and it melted the built-up oil from years of cooking. You could say it was like my last marks on the apartment being wiped away.