Home Away from Home

My apartment:

I did not plan very far in advance to rent this apartment. I was originally booked at Isla Verde where I have stayed in the past in a beautiful little room called Sark. Sark is right next to the river. It has a lovely covered porch where I could sit and write and paint all day long, and no one could see me. I could also leave all of my things on the table all day and night without any worry. But Isla bumped me in order to allow the present renters to extend their stay until May. They offered me another room, but no other rooms there possess the perfection of Sark. I want the option of sitting outside.

Betty, one of my knitting friends here, suggested this apartment. She lived here for a couple of weeks years ago while she waited for her rental to become available. The owner, Gloria, became her friend, so I made the connection and was able to rent the room. It is not quite Sark, but It is only $450/month. Sark was $1100 month. Sark was right in the center of town near all the shops. Santa Lucia is located about three miles from town, which is a perfect walk. I had to buy a few kitchen supplies, but no big deal. Ideally, I would love to be able to return here. Whenever I have a challenge here, I repeat my mantra, “It’s only $450 a month.”

Gloria and I have hit a couple of minor snags, but we’re working it out. She is a sweet woman with a good heart, but I learned early on that she came from a family of 11, is now 75 years old and has made it this far in life on her own in her own way. I respect that.

Our latest snag this morning told me we would be fine. Gloria has the condition known as “electromagnetic hypersensitivity.” If you ever watched Better Call Saul, you might remember that Saul’s brother suffered with this condition. It is a sensitivity to all things electrical. Here’s a wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_hypersensitivity

Because of this condition, Gloria does not use a phone, television, computer…nothing. The Internet modem is located in a tiny room in her house. When I first arrived, she said she would turn it on at 7 a.m. and turn it off at 10 p.m. 10 p.m. turned out to be too late for her, and she changed it to 9 p.m. I thought I could live with that, but last night I was chatting with a friend, and I was cut off mid-sentence. It was not yet 9 p.m. I left a note on her door and asked if she would consider moving the modem to my room. I explained that it would be a win-win. It would be out of her environment, and I could access the Internet whenever I needed it. I told her I would be happy to pay for the rewire.

She came to the window this morning and apologized for the disruption in my chat and agreed that we could move the modem. Of course, we discovered it is not that easy, but she said that I could just come into her place at night and unplug it before I went to bed. Works for me! “It’s only $450/month.”