Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Box of Rain by the Grateful Dead

When we subscribed to Netflix, it changed the entire face of TV viewing for me.  I was never much of a TV watcher until I moved into my first apartment.  Granted I didn't have a TV until then, but even as a kid, I was never a big TV watcher.  I was more interested in books.  When we got Netflix, I realized I could rent entire series from the past!  One of these series was Freaks and Geeks, an amazing series produced by Judd Apatow.  I love especially how the actors reappear time and time again in Judd Apatow movies and there are little inside jokes referencing other movies and shows.  The series only lasted 1 season, but it is a good one!  It takes place in 1980 and there is just a ton of great music from the 70's, mostly classic rock.  There was one episode when Lindsay was introduced to the Grateful Dead and it was my introduction to the Dead as well.  I had never been interested in listening to them and I never got the whole Deadhead thing.  But the music is great!  You do not have to be high to appreciate it - it is just mellow, easy listening, catchy, good stuff! 

I was very excited about my new musical find, which is silly as I was decades behind the time.  I remember telling my next door neighbors Paul and Glen about it and they agreed - good stuff!  We were living on the second floor of a 4-unit building on the Piedmont/Oakland border.  We met Paul and Glen while we were viewing the apartment and luckily, there were 2 units available because we were competing with them.  It was a tiny apartment (700 sq ft), but full of charm and within walking distance of 30+ restaurants, bars, nail salons, bookstores, a library, and so much more!  It was a wonderful 2 years. 

Living next door to Paul and Glen was exactly like living next door to Kramer.  You might be coming up the back stairs and Paul says hello because he can hear you coming up the stairs.  You realize he is calling out to you from the bathroom where he is likely sitting on the toilet with the window cracked. He would often knock while already opening the door to come inside.  They frequently left their door open when they were running an errand, but it was Piedmont, so no big deal.  The walls were pretty thin so they could hear us and vice versa.  We found this out after we had been gone for a couple days and came home to find out the automatic kitty box had malfunctioned.  It just kept going back and forth across the box, scooping litter, but never resetting.  It was loud and annoying.  It went on for days and poor Glen had to sleep on the couch because the sound was keeping him up at night.  We felt so badly for him!  Our bathtub clogged up...and theirs overflowed soon after.  You could say it was close quarters.  One time we were out of a certain condiment.  We looked outside and the door was open.  We called out and no one was home.  We went over and looked in the fridge, but they didn't have what we needed.  I don't think we ever told them we went over there.  They were nice guys with interesting life stories and we often had dinner together or BBQ'd or just hung out on the back stoop talking.  It was a great first apartment, full of fond memories. 

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