1976

Settling In

Tuesday morning I got up, had a bowl of cereal for breakfast and fed Kathleen.  First thing first I returned the U-Haul trailer to some gas station that was in Melbourne, so I drove back across the causeway and Indian River to Melbourne and then returned back across the river to Indialantic.  Crossing the causeway and river was a beautiful drive, always changing, always different. The water sometimes a bright blue, other times gray, sometimes calm, other times whipped into a fury by the wind.  Of the hundreds of times I would cross it in the coming years I never got tired of its beauty.  I had previously, while in Gainesville, contacted the power, water and had them already turned on.  I also contacted the telephone company (there was only one in the entire country, AT&T) and arranged for the phone man to come out and turn the phone on later in the week.

After returning home I got to unpacking.  The kitchen didn’t take all that long, a couple of boxes. I put the small table I had next to the sliding door onto the central atrium.  Livingroom took a bit more, get the couch positioned, end table, Michael’s nice red Persian rug that I still had on the floor, coffee table I had made, position stereo cabinet and set up stereo along with the two three foot high speakers.  Re-make bookcase from board and bricks, put books on it, TV on top.   Bedroom, unpack clothes, put in closet and dresser.  A couple hours and that was done but then there was my study which I was really anxious to get set up so that I could start putting together the IMSAI 8080 kit that I got just before I moved. 

My study was the second bedroom which would take a bit more work since everything that was to go in my study was in the garage since Kathleen had been locked in it the day before.  First thing, set up desk which consisted of two, two drawer filling cabinets with a wooden door on top.   Second “table” was another wooden door on top of two sawhorses.  Then came the boxes of my “projects”, a dozen book sized boxes filled with all sorts of gadgets, tools, components, wire, old radios, an old TV that sort of worked, yeah some would call it a lot of junk, but they were all some project for me.  But then there was  my prized possession, my brand new, still in the box, IMSAI 8080 Microcomputer kit, spoken excitement and voice of the kid in the movie A Christmas Story.   I open the box and see dozens and dozens of parts, my eyes bulge out from the excitement, I pick a few pieces out of the box and examine them closer like they were jewels from some treasure chest.  It was to late to start on it that day, so put the parts back and close the box. It would have to wait until tomorrow.

I did go out in my Chevy van and drive up (north) on A1A and found the nearest grocery store where I bought some much needed food.  I got home put the groceries up then went down to the beach.  It was a couple of hours before sunset and it had begun to cool off with a nice ocean breeze coming off the water.  It was only a half block walk to A1A, which being four lanes, was a bit of a pain to cross. On the beach side there was football field sized empty lot with large Australian pine trees growing and an easy path over the dunes to the wide, white sand beach.  “Yes, it was a nice place to live, I think I will like living here.” I thought as I walked on the beach.  

I missed taking dance classes, so I checked out the nearby Brevard Community College and found they offered a non-credit modern dance class.  It was one night a weed for six week so I signed up for it but didn’t find it to be what I expected so I only did the one session.