Apartment Dwelling

I woke up at the unbelievable hour of 3:00 am and have been pretty much killing time for the past four-and-a-half hours. You see, I am an apartment dweller. If I was an inconsiderate apartment dweller, I could have been cleaning, doing laundry, packing up camping equipment for the trip tomorrow, and such. However, I am a considerate apartment dweller and don't wish to disturb my upstairs neighbor or my downstairs neighbor by making noise in the middle of the night.

This brings me to consider the pros and cons of apartment dwelling:

PROS	CONS
No yard work.	No yard.
If something breaks, all I have to do is pick up the phone and someone comes to fix it.	I do, on occasion, have a noisy, inconsiderate neighbor. That, thankfully, is rare.
No painting, no upkeep, no condo association fees. They even have someone come periodically to clean the chimney.	There are limits to what I can change ; wall and carpeting colors are selected for me (they are neutral, thank goodness).
I feel safe here. I have a steel door and a deadbolt, and since I'm on the second floor, no one is likely to come in through the door on my balcony.	I'm on the second floor. If I had a fire, I have a pretty good drop to the ground. I could do it if I HAD to, though.
I have an assigned parking space. I always know where I'm going to park.	My apartment complex doesn't have a garage, so my parking space is outdoors. My car is always exposed to the elements. Also, people parking beside me are not always careful about not allowing their car doors to bump my car.
I have a small deck out on the balcony I can sit on it the evenings and enjoy a glass of tea while watching the world go by. MeggieDog likes it, too, because she can patrol the parking lot in complete safety from her wicker chair.	In the past, I had an inconsiderate upstairs neighbor who dropped live cigarette butts through the spaces in the decking above and burned holes in the cushions on my deck furniture. Jerk.
If I had an intruder and had to scream for help, someone would hear me.	I always worry that if Meggie hears something and barks, she might be disturbing someone. Thankfully, she rarely barks when I'm home, and I always make sure I'm home by the "quiet hours" established in my lease.

So, for me, apartment dwelling isn't such a bad deal. It's not for everyone, but it works well for me. Ah, nearly 8:00. Time to get to the drudgery!! As mentioned in yesterday's post, we're headed to the woods tomorrow, so I'll be away for a week.

I hope your week is as nice as I expect mine to be! :-)