Leaving Flickinger Court

There are many things that I am going to miss as I leave my town house apartment, and move in with ellie.

First of all I am going to miss the neighbor’s pool. I haven’t swam there since the eight girls moved out of the house, and a bunch of dudes moved in, but I will never forget that party that we had. It was the “we have a keg, you have a pool, lets have a party” type of parties. The highlight would have had to been either the flip-cup/swim relay game, or Q sending one of the girl’s b-friends to the hospital for a half a dozen stitches. Its not what your thinking, he is a married man now after all. Q threw a football pass into the pool, and the kid somehow cut his foot open on the stone ledge of the edge of the pool, while he was jumping in to catch the football. But it is still fun to harass him about it.

I will miss being able to tell people back in South Salem that I live in a complex that is named after my former neighbor/employer’s uncle. Geoffrey Flickinger use to employ me to walk his 150lb dog over the hill for a roll of nickels when I was in middle school. I haven’t figured out exactly how Geoff is related to Burt Flickinger, but he has to be some sort of uncle.

I will regrettably no longer be neighbors with my office mate Pedro, and his cousin Alberto. These Asians from the isle of Macao have Portuguese passports, and it always seems weird for me to use a traditionally hispanic name when talking to a man who is fluent in Cantonese, but not Spanish.

I will also miss the wiffle ball field in the back. The two best memories would be Keith Murphy? striking me out every time I faced him, and Creeps bleeding from the forehead after Coach wound up and pegged him in the head with the wiffle ball from five feet away, after he was clearly safe for two seconds. That was priceless.

There won’t be anymore bbqs, dart games, or poker nights there. All of this I knew going into to the move, but I also know that we will only be in Williamsville apartment for a little while, until I am done, or until we can find a better place, maybe one big enough for a dog (and no Joe, not a poodle). This was all going to be okay; at least I’d still have my couch. Then as Coach and I were try to pry my huge black leather couch up ellie’s narrow entry way I realized I was going to have to let that go too.

So my next mission was to find a safe place for the couch for the next year or two. One of the students I taught in my second year of PhD studies graduated, got a local job, saved up, and bought a 5 bedroom house. We still play softball and football together, so I figured he must have room for a couch. But no, they have 5 couches already, and the three car garage also does not enough room to store my couch. Next I looked to Tots. He bought a house with his fiancé two or three years ago, but has been slow to furnish it, especially the bedrooms. He also said that he would not be able to use my couch, but he could store it in his garage for a short time. So reluctantly I finally went to the person who knows every bartender in the greater buffalo area Keith Murphy?. At first he too said that he couldn’t use it, but then he said he could ask around for me. I am quite confident that he will be able to help me out if anyone can. One of my favorite questions when hanging out with this legend is “So how do you know Keith Murphy?”

I found a home for the grill (Coach said he could hold on to it for a while for me) and my neon bud light sign which will be in Di-Candy’s basement bar after he has his house built (another former student who will be a home owner before me). Other than that it is just kitchen stuff which we already got into Williamsville, and now all that’s left are clothes, books, a tv, puter, desk, bookshelf, and a few odds and ends that can be moved without much trouble over the next week. Everything else should make it up the stairs easily, so things are starting to look up.