Moved the piano and attended the first association meeting

Monday was an eventful little day. It started out nice, but then the weather turned a wee bit nasty. Lots of wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning. But we still accomplished a couple of things we'd been hoping to do for some time.

For starters, we finally moved our piano out of the parsonage (mission house) and into our own home. We didn't move it when we 'moved' because we wanted to decide for sure where we wanted it before moving it. We finally opted for the main floor living room - as seen in the pic.

One of our good friends (Matt K.) had volunteered to help move it, and offered to use his enclosed trailer to do so. So he suggested Monday. That was fine until it started raining cats and dogs and all kinds of other animals. I had literally just pulled my phone out of my pocket to call him and tell him we could wait until another day... and he pulled into the church parking lot. So we didn't let a little rain stop us. It actually worked out that he backed the trailer into the garage and we took the piano out the inside garage door. Then when we got to our house, he backed into that garage, and we carried it in through that garage door into the house. So the piano didn't get wet, and neither did we.

I was a little worried that just the two of us might not be able to maneuver it. Even though it is a small piano, it still weighs quite a bit. But Matt offered to do the heavier lifting, and I just tried not drop it, and we didn't really have any problem at all. I was a little sore that night, but nothing a little Aleve couldn't relieve. Here is a pic of it in its new location.


Later that night Jane and I then attended our first community association meeting. It was at a church just down the road, and it went pretty much like I anticipated it would. There were maybe 40 or so people there, and most of them were older. There were a few people who talked to us, and fortunately a couple of our neighbors were there (and they talked to us). We didn't understand a lot of what the board talked about, but the meeting only lasted 30 minutes. So it was quick and easy. Then we had refreshments and mingled about a little bit. We also got a free radon test kit.

Some of the things we learned...

• I guess there are 382 homes in our association (both west side and east side - it's divided by Airport Expressway).
• The city is going to replant about 49% of the ash trees that they cut down. The association will replant some more themselves. Homeowners can replant their own if they like, but it needs to be an approved type of tree.
• Zoning was changed to R1 (single family dwelling). That means you can't split your home up into apartments or rent part of your house out.
• They have always offered cash prizes for the best Christmas decorations. After this year they will still award prizes, but the money will be given in the name of the winners to the local food bank (and I learned that giving to Comm. Harvest actually helps the other food banks, because they get from them).
• There is a discrepancy as to whether we are in Waynedale or not. Some think we are (and want to be), and some think we are not (and don't want to be).
• They are looking into putting up sound barriers along both sides of Airport Expressway.
• There are some nice people, and there are some not-so-nice people. Unfortunately one of the not-so-nice is one of the two on the welcoming committee.
• Our side of the association is short one person on the board. They couldn't find a vp from the east side. A few people wanted Jane or I to do it, but we held our ground and said we would prefer to wait before making any commitments like that.
• We did also learn what happened with the police on our street the other day. Apparently it was Bill and Sue's son. He is a recovering alcoholic (apparently), and was having some issues and called 911 and threatened to kill himself. I guess he came out of the house with a gun, but was wrestled down without any shots or further incident. I feel really bad for them. We will probably go see them one day this week.
• We also learned that the association has their own blog. Lakeshoresblog.blogspot.com. The guy who started it shared about it. There isn't really anything there yet. I was going to share my interested in blogging with him - and thought about answering some of the questions that people were asking - but again, I didn't really want to get involved in anything at my first meeting. At any rate, I am glad we have a blog. Hopefully someday it will be worthwhile.
• And one last thing... the church where it was held - which I had always been curious about - was really weird. It had the oddest flooring, and wasn't near as big on the inside as I thought it would be. They also have a TON of nice audio/video equipment. I didn't really like it.
  

Well, this is turning into a longer post than I had planned. So... I guess that's what happened the other day in the neighborhood.