Apartments and Ribs

Well, wonders will never cease in this wondrous world: Comcast sent me a check for $117.12! I guess it's a refund or something, but I'm not going to bother to find out. Took it to BOA and deposited it.
I had a hankering for barbecue, so I went to WinCo and got a nice several pounds of fresh pork ribs. Put them in the large slow cooker with sauce and let them bubble away. I also bought Brussels sprouts, about my favorite veggie. Trimmed and rinsed them, cut up half a large onion, added coconut oil and lemon pepper seasoning, and put that together in the small cooker. Set both on high until I went out, then switched to low.
Spent part of the day scouting out other apartments nearby. I don't absolutely hate where I am--it has a lot of assets--but the negatives may outweigh them. For one, my particular apartment is reached by stepping down one step, walking two feet or so, then stepping down once again, then going down three steps. The latter has a rail on both sides, but the first two steps don't. Because the landscaping--which is very attractive--isn't flat, but flows and waves, part of where I live is more or less below ground level and I'm not crazy about that. There are two "balconies," off the living room and the master bedroom, but there's no point in sitting on them as, due to the configuration I mentioned, you'd be staring at the patio balcony wall, which is solid.
I greatly miss not having my own washer and dryer and it's somewhat of a drag to have to take trash and recycles to an enclosure and dump them myself. I guess most objectionable, from my point of view, is that Colony Parc permits dogs. Owners, of course, must keep them on leashes and clean up after the results of their--uh, bodily functions--but
Hark, hark, the dogs do bark--
The beggars are coming to town.
Forget the beggars, barking dogs are enough of a pain in the rear. I can't say they've ever disturbed my sleep, but there are two dogs upstairs that bark a lot doing the day. The first time I heard them, I honestly thought they were in my apartment, they sounded so close. There are a few other little things I'm not crazy about, one of them the rent, which I've now found is higher than comparable complexes. Wouldn't you know, the Ventura County Star is constantly running articles on housing costs here being some of the highest in the country, including--in fact, especially-- rentals.
My lease has ten months to run, so I'm not about to dash out, but I did see two places I would consider moving to eventually. My favorite was Ventura Del Sol and I liked Cypress Point, too. I talked to the leasing agents at both places and my first question was, "Do you allow dogs?" "No, nor cats, rabbits, birds, ferrets, cows, pigs...," said the guy at the former--I loved it. The second guy said they allow only service dogs. However, as we walked over to the model, I saw a young woman walking one of those teeny, tiny white balls of fluff; about two minutes later, I saw somebody with a medium-sized lab. What gives? I asked. Well, said the rep, we do allow comfort dogs, too.
Oh, pul-lease! Don't give me the "comfort dog" crap! Oh, I know, people love their doggies and surely, there are some sad souls who would truly suffer without their pets, but what kind of vague nonsense is this? The rep said they had to get a doctor to authorize the comfort pet thing. Hey, I could get a doctor to sign off on my boy toy (if ever I had one) as a medical necessity it I put my mind to it.
After my investigation above, I went to the thrift store and bought a large, sturdy, wooden magazine holder for six bucks. Looks good in the living room and now I have a place for mags.
Anyway, it was interesting and fun to realize I can move, reasonably easily if I decide to do so. Plus the barbecued ribs and Brussels sprouts were just superb and I have leftovers for tomorrow.