Count-down time. Almost.

Things just keep moving along here, despite triple-digit temps. Met with the apartment manager yesterday, signed a ton of forms (it is a HUD-backed building, after all), saw the apartment (people had just moved out that morning). All very cool. SO nice to be there, SO anxious to be able to go there and stay.

No move-in date yet -- there are lots of things she needs to confirm first. Personal and landlord references, doctors, pharmacy, social security (in case there has been income I didn't mention to her, which there is not). Move-in depends upon when all of these things are returned to her. I've heard from all references -- the manager emailed the forms to them and they are sending back ASAP, so that's good. The maintenance people told us they should have the apartment ready by this afternoon, so the only hold-up is all these forms.

The apartment is cool. Faces the street, but the building is set well back from the street and there are big trees, lawns and even a fenced terrace between the street and me. The apartment looks out over the big trees and the terrace, so the street is mostly hidden. I'd forgotten how small the bedroom is, but I don't need to put much in it besides a bed so that doesn't matter. There is tons of storage - three closets have closet-maid-type shelving, two of them are for hanging clothes. Nice removable shower head (on a hose) that isn't standard and was left by the previous tenant. They'll leave it for me. It's clean -- the carpet will be cleaned 'a couple of times' and they will patch nail  holes and do whatever painting is needed, but basically it's pretty much move-in. The carpet is ugly. Kind of a poop brown with zero pile. But that's a small thing that I can gladly live with.

So I'm on count-down, almost, and really getting antsy and impatient to move. About to head to the gym where I can maybe work some of this off. Gonna be 107 today -- I'll be clinging to the AC all afternoon, to be sure. And grateful to have it.

By the way -- Congrats to Ducks Ashton Eaton and Ryan Crouser on their gold medals last night. Not the only ones we've had or may have, merely the most recent. And that Ashton -- awesome dude. Lives and trains here in Eugene with his wife Brianne (bronze in heptathlon and also an Oregon alumni). They're both folks with deep character, appropriate humility and both are raging competitors. I expect they will retire after this -- they've talked of living elsewhere, traveling, doing humanitarian work. Good people.