After traveling 1,700 miles from Maryland to Colorado through fields upon fields of flatlands and corn last week in a rickety penske truck with poor alignment and a crooked axle, the view of mountains in the distance was a sight for sore eyes. What followed was a week of terribly frustrating beginner's luck in locating a good car and an apartment within my price range that had any sunlight at all, and which wasn't located in the midst of downtown Boulder's college housing district. I was blessed to have Suzy by my side to help me deal with the stress of this endeavor and helping keep me positive :)
The Car...
I was looking at Subarus, Audis, Saabs, Volkswagens, and a few Nissans, and Toyotas. Of the above which was not sold when I called, and which was within my price range with less than 130,000 miles, we only saw about 5 vehicles. All were in various states of disrepair, dirtiness, damage, and lemoniness (yes, Wikipedia states this is a word - "The state or quality of being lemony". Google shows 6,690 search results). Finally after deciding that the car I was really after was going to be a Passat or a Jetta, I made several appointments for all of the ones I could find within my price range and general criteria of not being a POS. The first VW I saw was a stick shift, with a well running engine, but very poorly looked after interiorly and exteriorly. The second ended up as my car, and it has a good story...
His name was Noah (not the car, the guy). Apparently he had booked an appointment to have this guy Todd's Passat inspected by a local Volkswagen mechanic. While test-driving Todd's car, he managed to plow it into an open man hole cover at a gas station, and ended up busting the car's oil pan. Now Noah had not only a pissed owner on his hands, but a $200 repair bill to pay for. In addition to this, Noah was a young college kid who didn't have cash to pay for the car, but was working on a car loan, and making sure he could get insurance for it.
By the time I saw Todd to test drive the car, I met him at the mechanic where the car was being fixed and inspected. Todd was all but begging me to make an offer on his car, so that he wouldn't have to sell it to Noah. At this point, the owner was willing to eat the cost of fixing the car rather than letting Noah pay for it. I made Todd a cash offer only $100 above what Noah was going to need to pay for it, and in hind sight, I could have made an equal offer in cash, and Todd would have taken it just so he didn't have to deal with Noah anymore.
Todd ended up footing the bill for the repair, and I took Noah's cost of the car inspection so at least poor Noah wouldn't be stuck without a car, and with a $100 inspection bill, and $200 bill for the broken oil pan.
I was en route to see more passats that day when Todd called accepting my offer and stating that Noah had backed down and cancelled the inspection. Poor Noah was apparently lost for words when Todd called him saying he had gotten a cash offer, and that Noah would have to beat it, on top of the repair costs.
The funny thing is that after calling to cancel my next two appointments, one of the appointments called me back and said "Oh man, that sucks. I just finished cleaning out my car when you called. Gimme a call back if you change your mind". If he had just finished 'cleaning out his car', I wonder what I would have found ;) Based on the sound of the guy, I was glad I had made a good decision.
Some College kid somewhere in Boulder, named Noah is probably cursing my name right now, because he doesn't have a car. But at least he didn't have to pay for his mistake. I'm still trying to determine whether the karma train is in my favor, or in Noah's favor. After all, I took Noah's car from under him, but given the extra cost of fixing it (based on what came out of the inspection), I probably did him a favor.
The inspection was the most meticulous piece of work I have seen anyone do in an extremely long time. The owner of the shop took over an hour explaining each thing they did, what they found, what it meant, why the car has it, why it happens to cars, what the issue signifies, what the cost might be to fix it, and what to expect from maintaining this vehicle. I left more educated and completely empowered, and fully eyes wide open from this conversation - I also left knowing I had found the right mechanic.
The owner of the shop (a Volkswagen and Audi shop exclusively) owns a Passat himself. This is a good sign. He also stated that he was happy to have ruined potential sales before with prior inspections he's done over the years, and that he's pleased to say that overall Todd's car was a good car.
He mentioned about $200 worth of work that should be done fairly soon, with another potential $200 worth of work to replace the serpantine belt within the near future. He also noted that the car will need new rotors and new break pads soon. All in all, he stated that I'd be looking at an estimated total of $1,000 in expenses within the next year or so because this car is a '99, has 128,000 and the things that need work are just regular expected wear and tear. The maintenance history on the car was also pretty immaculate based on going over all of Todd's maintenance records. All things said and done, with estimated cost of maintenance in the next year included, I still got a car within my budget, and around the same amount of money which I reclaimed from the sale of my Jeep back in Hawaii.
So.. I think his name is either Leo (ala stage presence), or Stewart (ala Mad TV). Suzy and I have yet to decide. Its hard to tell the color, but its metalic forest green with tan leather interior, iPod hookup and power everything.
The House...
Arriving in the last two weeks before University of Colorado, Boulder school starts, a time when all of UC Boulder's 5,833 incoming freshmen students are attempting to locate housing severely frustrated the quest, with most quality places already taken. The pickings in Boulder proper were slim, dirty, old, falling apart, overpriced, small, dark, or next to train tracks. Pickings outside Boulder were also slim, but more reasonably priced and that is where my quest eventually found its rest. The stories were all very similar "I love my place, I'm only moving out because I'm moving in with my boyfriend". One exception was a guy who apparently loved the condo complex so much that after dumping his girlfriend, he decided to rent an apartment in the same complex.
Since our search was yielding nothing, we were forced to rent a storage unit to move all of my stuff into prior to returning the penske truck on Saturday night. We found a storage unit in Arveda (a district of Denver) rather than selecting a more local Boulder location because of the huge price difference. The couple who operate and live on the grounds of the Mini U-Store It location (no they do not live IN an actual storage unit - but they do live out the back of the office with a small fenced in yard inside the complex) were absolutely charming, and both very motherly in their hospitality. After working out a deal where my fist month of rent is only $20, they brought us water and gave us free drop cloths to protect my chair and mattress while Suzy and I unpacked the truck. Once they left us with supplies, they went back into their office to close up, and go home for the day (through the door in the back), and went about home life - firing up the grill in the back yard - all surrounded by and contained in the barbed wire fences of this secure storage complex.
The lady's prior husband used to be a doctor. She got rid of him, and found happiness with a guy with whom she could work side by side and live with inside a storage facility along with their pet chihuahua who's name escapes me. Vignettes of life continue to bless me with studies in the simplicity of human love, humility and life.
God bless apple, and google for coming up with technologies which allow us to be natives in a foreign land through their guided GPS systems that located everything we ever wanted, and got us there. Our ability to be on the road, and read craigslist postings within minutes of them being posted, looking up the addresses, verifying the parts of town they were at, and getting immediate routing allowed us to preview scores of properties, drive by to evaluate some before calling, and make closely scheduled appointments to view many in a day.
After a further two days of nonproductive searching - a time filled with battling stress, sleep deprivation (due to allergies, and noisy cats), and extreme dehydration from Denver's extremely dry and rarified climate made for indulgences in hopelessness over ever finding something adequate to live in. This hopelessness had me consider a location which while being in a good location, good neighborhood, having ample light, a good floor plan and located right next to a lovely park at the end of a deadend street - had rotting floor boards on the staircase up to the front door, and several partial boards on the back staircase which could have given way any moment. The balcony railing moved six inches in any direction your finger nudged it, and was reinforced with two randomly nailed planks of wood to prevent its total collapse. While speaking with the realestate agent who was showing it to us, it became apparent that the owner of the building had no intention of fixing the dilapidated exterior. I wonder who would pay for the injury lawsuits resulting from the collapse of this building. The fact I seriously considered this location was a result of complete desperation given the amount of properties we had seen prior to this 'promising' fixer-upper.
On Tuesday morning, the winds of change blew in a breath of fresh air. I came across a 1 bedroom condo in a small but new condo complex in Louisville, with plenty of light, a great kitchen and a non-boxy floor plan, a washer and dryer, new carpeting and appliances - within walking distance of my new school, and within 10 minutes drive to the thriving college town of Boulder all at the price of $695 a month.
I get to move into my new home around the first of September. After leaving Hawaii to relocate to Colorado I've felt very displaced, and despite the hospitality of others, I desperately wish to move in to a place of my own, get settled, and resume my studies.
The School...
This week we decided to stop by the new school unannounced just to check out the building. Its a great building, very clean, very well organized, modern, and very professional. The people are warm and friendly, the library is smaller than my prior school, but functional, plus they have an on site book store for all of the required books. They have 3 spacious treatment rooms with comfortable seating, a desk, a sink, and basically a similar setup to what you find at a western doctor's clinic. The school and clinic are located in a medical complex and shares building space with a western doctor's office. The medical complex has many modalities making referral business easier. Downstairs is a student's lounge, including a shower and a futon for anyone who needs a nap. They have two classrooms - a large one with plenty of floor space with yoga mats, etc, and a smaller one for upper classmen.
I took a look at the literature in the clinic lobby, and based on reading a few simple things in the brochure given to clients, I knew I had found the place for me. Each new client should allow 3 hours for their first intake, and 2 hours for each treatment session. This is what I was expecting from my previous experience with 5E schools and I'm really glad that they follow the same principles of diagnosis and practice, rather than a more rapid triage based approach emphasized by a few supervisors at my prior school. I suppose it all depends on what the desired outcome is and the diagnostic rubric. The techniques and philosophies are so different, I don't really know what to expect as I'm not familiar with the one on one 5E treatment since my first 5E experience in a community clinic setting, where the intake is very quick and treatment is in a communal setting. Expediency of treatment in that setting takes priority over extended diagnosis. The lengthy 3 hour intake I had once was for an herbal consultation. It will be interesting to see what the one on one 3 hour acupuncture intake entails. Still, I like that what will be taught is the more extensive one on one diagnostic process. All in all, I feel based on what I've seen at the school thus far that this is the right place for me. It will be interesting trying to integrate what I've learned thus far into what I am going to encounter now.
The Day's Adventuring...
Lukasz and Judith belong to a local farmers cooperative which distributes allotments of local organically grown fruit and vegetables on a weekly basis out of a truck in the back parking lot of a local synagogue. You don't know what veggies you'll get from week to week, but the surprise bestows on you mystery vegetables of the week which can tantalize the pallet with unbeatable quality of the produce. The expectation alone is nail-bitingly good.
Today, since they're away while I look after their cats, I picked up a bundle of red kale, some zucchini, baby potatoes, squash, yellow peppers, two cantaloup, a melon, and a dozen or so ripe peaches. I shamelessly ate peaches three this afternoon.
Other than picking up the veggies at the synagogue, my remaining accomplishments for the day included a curiosity-inspired self-directed tour of Louisville and Lafayette (the two communities wherein my new home is located), and lunch at a salvadorian pupusas truck stand on a street corner in Louisville, a few clicks down from my new address on West Centennial Drive. My only other accomplishment today has been to open a local bank account and several random conversations with friendly strangers.
Looking Forward...
This morning I took a look at Naropa University's community class workshops. Through their site I found a T'ai Ch'i teacher, Bataan Faigao of Rocky Mountain T'ai Chi who teaches the Cheng style lineage (the form I had been learning in DC prior to leaving) at Naropa for $405, but teaches the same class outside of Naropa's per-credit-hour-cost, at $150 for 15 sessions - I believe the same cost as my Shi Fu Michael Ward in Maryland. The class starts the evening of September 15th. I do not know what time my school intensives run till, but hopefully I will be able to go to these classes thereafter which start at 7:15pm.
Additionally, there is a weekend workshop, Breeze of Simplicity on the basics of sitting meditation taught at Naropa, with Tibetan Buddhist lama, Anyen Rinpoche November 13th-15th for $195.00
Here's a listing of some other Public Courses taught through Naropa, as well as some Community Events .
Tomorrow?
I have no idea.
