Our Apartment

     We have a very nice apartment. Every time we leave or return home, we go down a lane Elder Holbrook calls the Batcave, because it reminds him of the entrance to the Wayne Manor in the old Batman movie, like this, except there isn't a rock that moves out of the way and we don't have Alfred to clean for us. And Elder Holbrook isn't that crazy of a driver. Our Batcave entrance looks more like this:

     Because it's on a hill, our apartment building is three floors in front, two in back. The tenants on the second and third floors use the parking lot on the backside, through the Batcave entrance. Since our apartment is on the second level, we walk straight in. Our apartment is on the front side, overlooking the lower parking lot. The only time we use the stairs is to get mail or do laundry, which are both on the first floor.

Our building as seen from the Batcave parking lot

     The laundry room has two nice washers and dryers, but we try to do loads as seldom as possible, since it costs 2.50 (Can. $) to wash and dry a load. Makes us appreciate our own washer and dryer back at home in a new way. One day Sister Holbrook was talking with the wife of another senior couple in the mission. They have a washer and dryer in their unit. The other sister said she missed her dishwasher and didn't care about the washer and dryer. Sister Holbrook said she missed her washer and dryer and didn't care about the dishwasher. They both preferred the thing they didn't have. And life goes on anyway. We'll both get through our missions and not suffer too much for lack of anything (except seeing our grandkids regularly--that's where Skype and FaceTime come in).

For Halloween someone decorated the corner of the parking lot

     We almost have what one of our missionaries in Russia called a magic kitchen. He bragged that he could sit at the table and without moving, could grab a pan from the cupboard, fill it with water in the sink, put it on the stove and when the water boiled, take eggs from the fridge and cook them, all without taking a step. Our kitchen isn't quite that small and we have a dining room table rather than a table in the kitchen, but it comes close. It only takes three or four steps to get from the kitchen door to the sink. And yet it suits us quite nicely. We have a fridge, stove/oven, dishwasher, and a few cupboards and drawers, everything we need. Besides, the smaller it

Trash, recyclables, organics

is, the less work to keep it clean, right? We're learning to buy more often and in smaller amounts since we don't have as much freezer space as we're used to.

Canadians are into recycling. We're still learning how to sort all our trash, because some things we'd think to sort one way are done a different way here. For example, pizza boxes and empty toilet paper rolls go into the organic bin with things like banana peels, not with paper. These are the bins in the hallway at the office. Ours at home are, well, let's say a little less organized. :~) When Elder Holbrook takes out the garbage, he has to put it in the appropriate bins in the parking lot. They also have a bin for corrugated cardboard most places.

     Tomorrow is Veterans Day in the US. Here we will celebrate Remembrance Day. Same idea, but it's a bigger deal here. Most businesses are closed--even Costco! There will be Remembrance Celebrations all over. That will probably be our post next week. In the meantime, thank you to all who have served their country, whether they gave their life in that service or not.

We are loving it here. Fall is a gorgeous time to be in Nova Scotia. We feel so blessed to be able to serve another mission.