Travels, Settle in Albany, 2009

Click here to see the next page of this series.

Click on click here to see the prior page of this series.

Click on any of the little pictures to see it at normal size. Click on the '=0=' after the picture to see it in giant size (about 2 minutes to download on dialup connection and larger than screen size). This could be useful if you wanted to really look at one part of the picture or to make a print.

where I was assigned as a soldier.
On Sunday, I headed to Copake promptly in the morning so that I could go to church with Barbara and Duane at the Craryville Methodist Church (shown here). They had a new pastor there, Reverend Lee who is retired (had been with a Korean congregation in the U.S.) and now leads services at two little churches in rural NY. He is a lovely man and reminds me of Mr. Park (pronounced more like Bach, but the first consonant is really half way between 'B' and 'P') who helped at a local orphanage in Daegu, KoreaCraryville Methodist Church, NY. =0=
Reverend Lee. =0= Barbara, Reverend Lee, and Duane. =0=
Here is the sanctuary of their church. They only have a dozen or so people at services, but it is a warm and welcoming community. I had an ulterior motive for making the trip to Potake as Barbara had offered to lend me a microwave, desk and platform bed. As I unloaded my car I realized that life would be much sweeter with drawers and such to put stuff in. Sanctuary. =0=
Here is my room with the bed and desk. The bed had been James' when he was growing up, he went from crib to water bed until he went to SUNY Albany. As I only have air matteresses (camping size at that) for now, I didn't bother with the sides to support the water bed. The desk is 70's era garage sale waiting to be refinished after all these years. However, it is comforting to have a place for my stuff rather than packed away in my car. My bedroom. =0=
It wasn't until Thursday that John, my new housemate (shown here), and I were able to pick the furniture at Restore (from the Tuesday donation pick up run) as well as other listed as free on CraigsList.com. John's truck, also below, was invaluable for moving that stuff. John is a cook / welder / nuclear engineering student at RPI (in Troy, NY, just across the Hudson River from Albany). Right now he is working at Outback and brought home 2.5 pounds of left over prime rib. Yikes! He has also been suggesting better ways to prepare food rather than nuking (microwaving) it. Oh my, prime rib can taste really good. John. =0=
John. =0= John's Truck. =0=
Here is a view of the living room with our new furniture. The Restore gave me a great price on the upholstered furniture as it was slightly soiled. I was intending to see if I could clean it (an experiment) though it really doens't matter as we will likely cover it all with linen so that John's dog, Max (below), can use it. Max is ten years old and diabetic and it doesn't seem likely we will be able to train him to not use the couch as he seems inclined to do. Also below is Cat the unnamed cat that Farrell and John took in when they were in South Carolina. There is talk that Cat may have feline leaukemia, but I don't see any sign of it. After a week of living with Kitty it is now pretty clear that I am no longer alergic to cats, though I still haven't pet her as yet for fear that there would be minor reaction. I imagine that over the next several months I will gradually increase my contact with her (now she is banned from my room and I don't pet her). The chair by the heater is so the cat get up to her food on the heater. That is mostly so that Max won't try to eat it and get sick. Living Room. =0=
Max. =0= Kitty. =0=
Here is Farrell when she was visiting one day with Cat. She was aggravated with me for taking the picture as she wasn't made up at all. Later that evening I went to see a band she recommended at a local bar, Valentine's, where she and John often hung out with their friends (the opening band was friends of theirs, too). They were very good. Farrell. =0=
A few days later I took another picture of Farrell and she is absolutely gorgeous in this picture. Looking nice is an art form for women and she has really mastered it. I like both pictures, of course. Below are a couple of pictures from the basement of the two bicycles which someone offered to donate to Restore and I gave my personal guarantee that they would sell. There are separate heaters and hot water (gas) for the two floors. There is also a bike helmet from the 'free' place from CraigsList.com. Now I can exercise while doing errands and such, and have a bike to share with friends. . =0=
Restore donation bike. =0= Restore donation bike. =0=
Here is the dining room with a $15 table from Restore (had been $55 originally but waited for me to take it at a bargain price) and two chairs from the free place. Below is a picture of the giant microwave I got from Restore for $15. It is just inside the pantry off the kitchen. I was worried about getting another microave as I have one in storage that will probably arrive in a couple of months. I might end up with three microwaves, oh my! However, on consideration I stopped worrying. When I get my microwave from storage I can just give this one back to Restore, thereby completing my $15 contribution to Habitat for Humanity (which I would have done anyway). Cool! This microwave is really huge, though it may not be apparent in the picture. Why if you had a herd of cattle you wanted to hide from rustlers (always a common occurence in Texas), you could just herd them into the microwave and none would be the wiser. Further, there is a metal rack in the microwave so that if you had a ramp you could hide a second herd of cattle in there as well. Perhaps I exaggerate a little, but not much. ;-) Dining Room. =0=
Kitchen Pantry. =0= Attic. =0=
Above and here are pictures of the attic. It has regular stairs to get to it and a nice high clearance. I will be setting up my HDTV antenna there and there are already drops to the different rooms on the second floor. Lots of fun projects. Attic. =0=
Here is a picture of a computer table that John had picked up as free on Craig's list along with other gear that John got at the 'free site' shown above. There was a Kodak EasyShare camera which turned to have standard Nickel Metal Hydride batteries (rechargable) which were dead (could no longer hold a charge). With replacement batteries I found about seven pictures from the previous owners, two of which are shown below. John's Computer Table. =0=
Previous Owner Picture. =0= Previous Owner Picture. =0=
To further test out John's camera, I took this picture of my computer table in foyer to porch. Looks pretty sharp for a free camera, don't you think? My computer table in foyer to porch. =0=
Click here to see the next page in this series.

This page was last updated on October 21, 2009.