Trains, Bars, And Automobiles

I’m moving to a small, mostly tourist city from the neighboring bigger one for work/back to school for a professional degree, so house/apartment hunting, as they are mostly suburban and where I lived before had a highway and train tracks.

Because I had an old Jeep with usually no roof and was going to be working and studying all the time for a few years, I had two absolute housing conditions:

1: That it was quiet, no shared walls or loud environments.

2: It needed a garage to store and maintain the Jeep, as paying a shop would not be viable.

An agent calls me, and she says:

Agent: “Okay, I see the house you inquired about, and it was just rented, but I have a list of places that may be suitable.”

Me: “Okay, sure, send me the first address where I should meet you.”

Agent: “Okay, I will send you the office location; we can go from there.”

Me: “Yeah, I guess that works.”

I get there, and she is outside by an older little sedan.

Agent: “Hi, great, let’s hop in and let’s go!”

Me: “Um, okay.”

Agent: “So this first place is great for young people!”

We get to the house, and there is a tourist-themed bar next door with music blasting at 11 AM.

Me: “No, way too loud.”

We don’t even get out of the car.

Agent: “This next one is more out of the way.”

We pull up and have to wait for a train crossing.

Me: “Trains, why did it have to be trains. Nope! Let’s go!”

I like trains, but after horns going off and a ten-minute blast at 12 AM every night at the switchyard, never again.

So, onto the last place, she pulls into a one-way street the wrong way and almost hits a big diesel-lifted pickup that would have squished us like a bug if she didn’t turn hard, bouncing right over the curb and onto the sidewalk.

Agent: “Oopsy! Uh, look, it ends well; we made it! Look, this is the next apartment, very affordable! See!”

It’s an old, what I learned later, section eight complex, with only street parking, as the sign we almost hit says.

Me: “Quiet, with no shared walls and needs a garage. Do any of the places on your list meet that?”

Agent: “Um, let me take you back to your car.”

Silence all the way back.

Agent: “Is it safe to assume you won’t be renting through me?”

I give her a look, and she just says:

Agent: “I’m sorry, hope you find a place.”

I did find a house the next week and stayed four years until that management changed.