JUNE 30, 2023

I acknowledge, during the month of April to August my life was filled with unexpected challenges due to weather conditions that up-end my daily living routines which was a constant way of life for the last six years.

My dog, Echo, and I tried to accept the regular routine of taking thirty-two stairs to enter and exit our third-floor apartment. Rather than the two steps we were accustomed to taking from our motorhome living room to the ground or an outdoor patio slab.

The real downers are: (1) Taking 32-stairs to haul moving boxes from the apartment to outside dumpsters. Then determine where I can put crushed boxes and my trash into already overflowing dumpsters.

(2) taking Echo out four to six times a day, (3) I am in the habit of spending $150 a month to restock the refrigerator and cabinets in my motorhome which continued upon moving into the apartment.

As a result, I made  four trips up and down thirty-two stairs carrying grocery bags on both arms while dealing with balancing and joint discomforts due to a right-knee replacement,  a right shoulder prosthetic, a slack right wrist, and a pending right ankle replacement surgery when I return home in 2024.

Meanwhile, due to the constant need to walk stairs joint pains occurred. Therefore, my surgeon immediately sent me to Avery Hospital For Warm Water Pool Therapy three times a week from July to September. However, those one-hour P.T. Sessions caused extreme exhaustion, making it hard for me to return home and immediately take Echo out to potty. Somehow, I always found the mental strength to soldier through because I had no choice. However, in mid-August I decided to quit P.T. and returned to walking various Sioux Falls Parks three times a week, instead. While looking forward to putting this entire apartment living saga behind based on my own assessment of our situation.

Not only did I not like above living situations. I didn’t like anything about apartment living such as environmental apartment smells; the constant itching, sneezing, and coughing caused by the smell of carpet, dusty ceilings, and a single window unit air-conditioner perched from the living room interior to the outside exterior of the Living-room wall, which is then blocked in by a makeshift wall on the patio which limits the use of the entire patio by residents.

Although, the previous window air-conditioner was replaced after I made a  complaint of the smell of mold, cat pee, and smelly hardworking male underarm musky sweat. The new air conditioner unit didn’t smell like the previous one, but it too had a smell.

I had been so busy trying to adapt that I hadn’t noticed Echo was having his own challenges. From the time Echo was born, he went from living in an outside enclosure near a field with his mom and eight furry siblings freely running through open fields and dodging a few cows while playing in a nearby field; to travelling in a 30-foot motorhome with me from place-to-place.

Echo quickly adapted to his life of motorhome living. He learned he could sleep all day without having to deal with siblings or me. This I loved because, as long as Echo slept, I more I could get done such as write articles, updating blogs, respond to customers, make phone calls, write a variety of reviews, work on new novels, and how-to books.

Whenever  Echo woke up, we worked on usual dog training commands such as Come, Down,  Heel, Lay, No, Off, Sit, Stay, and stop. As well as fetch my cellphone, his brush, rope, ball, etc. Often, like Dakota my three-year old, deceased German Shepherd. Echo enjoys seating in the driver seat keeping watch, barking at unknown people, black bears, coyotes, rabbits, and deer. Occasionally, blowing the horn while looking back in my direction which is my prompt, to come see what he see.

Upon my arrival, Echo looks forward as I tell him what we are seeing.

Further, Echo’s ability to exit and re-enter the motorhome on his own when he needed to potty had never been an issue. But became a serious issue once we moved into this apartment with thirty-two stairs.

The first day of our arrival to the apartment, I  was concerned about how I was going to get Echo up the thirty-two stairs we needed to climb. After using my key to open the security door and stepping through the entranceway. Echo immediately sat beside my left foot staring up at the staircase like me.

Finally, I took a deep breath and placed my left foot on the first step. Echo did the same, then followed me up to the third floor. I was impressed, Good Boy Echo, I said.

That was the only time Echo followed me up or down this staircase. As time passed, I found myself hanging onto the stair railing trying not to fall while jerking Echo back during his fast-paced race and dives up or down this staircase. One day, he lost his footing and rather than falling down the stairs with him. I decided to let Echo’s leash go. Echo slid down the stairs on his belly while trying to grab the carpet with his paws.

When he finally fell onto the floor, he quickly stood and looked up as I finished my gradual descend down the staircase due to a right knee replacement.

A few days later, I noticed Echo was limping. So, we made a trip to a nearby animal hospital. It was determined Echo pulled his left hip joint during the fall and was put on anti-inflammatory medication for a week.

This was the end of Echo’s dives up or down apartment staircase. Now he takes a few steps ahead of me; wait until I catch up and continues this routine until we arrive on the third floor or descend to the exit door. Laughing, he turns out to still be an attentive fast learning, since I did  have to teach him this!

Other difficulties I have discovered about living in this apartment: Children running up and down the hallway like they are running marathons on an outdoor track, which makes this a problem when Echo needs to go out to potty. As a result, I have had to approach and ask parents if they could have their children join them in the laundry room or send these children to their apartment so I can take my dog out to potty.

Further, I always carry poop bags in my pocket to pickup after Echo. Nothing is more irritating then picking up Echo’s poop, then stepping in another resident’s dog poop while heading to the dumpster to dispose of my dog’s waste.

A little after 9:30pm, I took Echo out to potty. We had been outside for a while when I heard something noisy being dragged from the door of my apartment building. I quickly turned and saw a female resident dragging a large black heavy-duty construction type trash bag from the door down the sidewalk; across the parking lot to the dumpster location where she left the bag and returned to the building.

Upon returning to the entrance door of my apartment, I was met by the smell of something dead. The smell was so overwhelming; I had to back out of the building and use my foot to retrieve a rock and push it into the door frame to hold the door open for a while. Because the portable floor placed ventilation system is so small, it does not force any significant air flow towards the second or third floors. Therefore, the entire entrance up to the third floor had a strong unpleasant death smell.

Further, there was a trail of slimy residue on the left-side of the staircase that I ensured Echo didn’t walk-in or smell. The same situation exited upon opening my third-floor entrance door. This time, the trail of slim was on the right-side of the hallway, leading to the door the bag was dragged from. That awful smell lasted for a few days.

I don’t like the constant slamming of doors and trying to quiet echo because this returning home resident routine, seems to disturb both of us. Nor do I enjoy rushing home to get a parking space near the entrance door because my knee or ankle hurts.

Nope, I can’t do it! Knowing this is not the life for me, I brought moving boxes from Lowe’s Home Improvement and begin repacking my household effects which will be returned to a storage facility when I return home in April 2024.