Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 00:33:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: REviewer's workshop
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

dicconf <dicconf at radix.net> wrote:
> A basement apartment that isn't damp?  Now that _does_ sound like
> fantasy!

It's on a hill.  The floors are wood, not concrete.  And I put a rug
down.  The rug is worn out and dirty, but I'm not inclined to replace
it, since it would mean moving all the bookcases that encircle my main
room, which are mostly nailed together, and, of course, filled with
books.

I have had floods from the idiot upstairs neighbors, who sometimes
forget they left their bathtub running.  But I know where the water
comes down, so I make sure nothing valuable is in the way.  If you
look closely at my bookcases, you'll see a couple of places where
I've left a gap behind them for water to run down the walls.

>> The boards, on the other hand, *are* painted.

> Why am i not surprised that Keith takes precautions like this?

Actually, I got them from my parents.  They painted them.  Those
temporary shelves may be older than I am, though they've been in
their current location for a mere 26 years.

My apartment is also upwind of DC, on the reverse slope of a hill,
and has no windows facing that direction.  I've been concerned about
terrorism for a long time, and am probably one of the few people in
the area who were *relieved* by 9/11.  ("Is that the best you can do?")

I also chose it because a Metro station was to open within a half hour
walk within two years, and there was a grocery store a two-minute walk
away.  As it happened, the grocery store closed the following year,
and the Metro station didn't open for seven years.

But the station is there now.  Not only do I commute on it every day,
but I used it to bring an already-assembled bookcase home from the old
office this evening.  As I mentioned, our office moved last weekend.
It didn't move far -- I could hear the same bagpiper from both the old
and new offices last night, and he was standing still.

I also chose the apartment because the heat is free.

it does have its downsides, such as the total lack of soundproofing,
the idiot upstairs neighbors, and the idiot landlord.  (When I got
home from Capclave, I found my doors unlocked, my lights on, and a
note on my kitchen counter from my landlord complaining that they
couldn't get into my apartment!)