OK, it's been a while, I know... Been a teensy weensy bit preoccupied. I have some shit to say though:
Rita evacuation: Is this going to be the new protocol whenever a hurricane threatens the gulf coast? Don't get me wrong, what Katrina hath wrought was AWFUL, and the (local) government response to it was dismal, but can you imagine what's going to happen to the economies of these states (never mind the rest of us who will be paying to rebuild them for years) if--every time a storm threatens--government officials play "cover-my-butt" and start FORCING people out of town, whether they want to go or not, paying for their evacuation in the process? What's going to happen when a few of these storms head towards Florida? At least the gulf states had some form of protection against up to a category 3 storm, Florida has no such protections. Does that mean that everything from category 2 and up is going to mandate an evacuation from all threatened counties? Can you imagine how people who live there will feel about having to do that three or four times per year (on average)?? Pretty soon, no one (in his right mind) will want to live there!
Again, I'm not suggesting that caution and concern are unwarranted. A cat-5 is HUGE. The danger is REAL, people should get out, but when the government is the arbiter of who should get out and when all the time, it makes me stop and take notice. The Galveston mayor has the right idea. She's just telling people you better get out or we're not going to help you. That makes sense and seems fair, but there are other areas that are forcing evacuation and that seems like a CYA more than anything.
People have criticized Homeland Security over Katrina, so I have to wonder, what if instead of a hurricane, this was a terror threat. What if instead of a storm, there was a significant threat of toxic attack, dirty bomb, etc..., and let's say such a threat came out every couple of weeks for a few months. Would people have patience (and money) to keep evacuating "just in case?" What about civil defense? What about personal preparedness? Why not just stop writing insurance on those locations? Why not just close the Gulf coast and tell people not to live there? Who'd want to live someplace where the long-arm of the government could reach out three to six times a year telling you to pin your name and phone number to your kid and hope for the best as your whole family boards a bus for who-knows-where? How many lawsuits will there now be over lost wages, lost kids, lost property, etc... if the whole thing is a loud wolf-cry? (Let the flaming begin)
Conspiracy theories about New Orleans flooding: GET A GRIP! Any Europeon moron who thinks Katrina flooded New Orleans because of some plot by the Bush administration against blacks, or because Bush didn't sign Kyoto, or because Bush has buddies at Halliburton who'll make money off anything and everything to do with the storm's after-effects, or because the mafia planned it, or whatever needs to check their dosage and call their local mental health professionals. Why not just say that aliens or Elvis caused it, it would be just as plausible.
People going back to N.O>: Who needed to plot against the people there. Clearly they are suicidal or retarded (or both).
Trial Lawyers SUCK: I have now experienced FIRST HAND what John Edwards has done to negatively impact his constituents (of which I will be one by November--thank GOD he's not seeking reelection). I spent over an hour on the phone yesterday calling not one, not two, not even three, but SIX OB/GYN practices to find a doctor to deliver my baby in December, and I ended up having to BEG the last practice to take me after the first five said NO. They contended that they couldn't take someone past 5 months because of "liability issues," and the doctor I ended up finding told me she'd take me on if I'd sign some "paperwork" that would absolve her and her office of all culpability no matter what happens to me or my baby between now and after she's born! Can you imagine? I grant you, they were all very apologetic, very sympathetic, very kind, but ultimately not helpful (until the end). When I asked what I should do if I coudln't find a doctor, I was told "when you need care, go to the ER."
So I should wait for hours on end at the ER with my 2 year-old in tow waiting to pee in a cup, get weighed and have my blood pressure checked? WHAT? And when I have to delivery my baby I should just show up at the ER and get whoever's there? I have insurance, I'm not here illegally, is this what we've come to thanks to the lawyers?
Thank goodness I found someone, but it gives me the creeps to have to sign away my rights in advance. I'm not the suing type, but if the lawyers don't "get" that doctors are just going to make it harder for people to get care and harder for them to sue when they get sub-standard care, what service are they rendering? Oh, I forgot, they're not in it to "help" people, despite what Edwards would have had us all believe.
MA Real Estate Scene: I don't know if the bubble is bursting or exploding or what, but where there were only 3 single family homes on the market in my price range last summer when we bought this place, there are now (I kid you not) 24. That's just in my price range! In total, my little town of 14,000 people has managed to put almost 1% of its homes on the market!
I've heard all the reasons: Baby-Boomers wanting to cash out and downsize, people running scared because of the "threat" of a bubble burst, people fleeing MA in general (hey, I can relate to that), but what doesn't make sense is how many people who don't fit into these categories are out "shopping" for homes BEFORE putting theirs on the market. Explain this logic to me:
- I have a house
- I spend a weekend touring other people's homes
- I see one I like, I decide to go home and put mine on the market, even though there is about a 9 months supply of homes like mine already out there (that's how I found one to buy in the first place)
- Someone will not only buy MY house, but they'll pay HUGE money for it despite the inventory glutt!
Uh-huh, WHAT-ever.
I have no choice but to sell my house. I gotta get out of here so my husband can start a new job in another state. The timing is not by choice--what sane person would "choose" to move when 6-7 months pregnant, with no new home to move to (and no real prospect of finding one before the baby arrives), a toddler in tow, a dog, two cats, the holidays approaching rapidly, a market glutted with similarly priced and sized homes, etc...?
But who's coming to see my house? Shoppers, not buyers. Even though I have to sell this house, I approached house-hunting in NC as a "buying" trip. Had we found something, we would have bought. We would have had to get a bridge loan, but we need to find a place to live, so what choice would we have had? Here, people are selling homes without a clue where they'll move to, or with a house picked out, but without putting an offer on it--as if it will just sit and wait for them forever! Owners (like me) still won't accept contingency offers, sho why bother shop if you can't buy, and why bother sell if you have no destination in mind? That's the other part of this. Many people here I know are looking to cash out but they don't even have a town picked out to move to! What are they going to do? Rent? The area is not known for rental property inventory, especially now that rental prices are lower than usual. What about those with kids in school? Unless they are downsizing or trading down, they are going to be toast--homeless, I don't get it!
Then again, I don't get this whole stupid state.
Our house is priced to sell. We won't take less than asking, and we can. We've looked at what else is out there--the propeties people thing are the Taj Majal but are actually pretty drab and small and crappy--ours stands out like a rare gem in a pile of rocks. We'll do OK. But the rest of these people? Good luck to them.
Real Estate in Charlotte: Look up "bleak" in the dictionary, and you have a picture of the Charlotte real estate scene right now for buyers. The prices are still OK--not great, but OK--it's the inventory that sucks. In such a family-oriented place, people are hunkered down for the school year, at least in the neighborhoods people like us (people with kids) want to live.
Up here, you can hardly give a house away unless it's something really special (and even mine will go at a loss to us), but there, all you can buy is what's leftover after what must have been a brisk summer season. Want a 2 hour commute? No problem! Want to pay $800K for a house closer in? There are one or two left. Don't have kids and don't care what schools are in your neighborhood? Still more houses available, but still not the best of the bunch.
Any woman who's ever been pregnant who's reading this knows that "nesting" is a powerful instinct, and just as I'm entering the throes of that phase, I will have to leave my nest and won't be able to replace it. Laugh all you want boys, but this is major stuff. I'm a wreck. Sure, I want out of MA, but if I could, I'd put my house right on the truck with us and take it to NC. I won't find anything as charming, as full of character, as full of MY TASTE and style (now that I've done the kitchen over). Instead, I'll probably end up in some McBuilder's house with low ceilings, poorly designed (but too new to bother replacing) kitchens, walls so thin you can put your fist through them, wall-to-wall carpeting all over the place and no trees on the lot. I can only pray I'm wrong, but it's a tough adjustment to make, no matter how much I can't stand MA politics and other lunacy.
Move Update in General: I'm not comfortable leaving my home to be sold without me living in it. That's just more trust than I can place in a realtor. So I'll be sticking around and my husband will leave and start his new job for at least a month, commuting home on weekends (we hope). It's a logical and rational decision, but it's not ideal.
We're supposed to be getting an offer tomorrow on the house from people who did decide to pony up and get a bridge loan to buy it now (and not risk losing it), but it better be for asking. I'm not desperate, I'll wait it out and have the baby here if I have to, even our agent said if this were spring, she'd have priced it $20K higher and it would sell for it (after a month or two). Whoever gets this house is getting a bargain--basicaly "Buy kitchen, get house"--and I'll squat to make sure they know it.
There are days I feel I'm going crazy. How many life changes can one person handle at once?
- Selling a house
- Trying to buy another (and not being able to find one)
- Moving to a different state
- Changing jobs
- Having another baby
Anything else? I suppose I'm still very lucky. I have my health. My husband has a job, I don't HAVE to work (we're willing to make the sacrifices to make sure that's the case) and although I live in MA for now, I don't live somewhere truly awful like New Orleans! When I step back and look at it all, life is good, very good. But stepping back is hard these days. There's just so much to think about, so many details...
What's with us and October? I can't seem to come out of that month without some major turmoil in my life--good or bad. My step-mom died in October. I got married in October. I had Emma in October. I moved to a new home last October, and this October, well, you've read this far, you know.
I must have some bizarre version of "Back-to-school" syndrome! You know that feeling that it isn't fall unless you have some major new challenge to take on? Next year I hope I'll just have the good sense to buy some sharp new pencils and call it a day!
Posted by insomnomaniac at September 22, 2005 4:41 AM