We're Home

Today, I'm quite tired. Twelve hours were spent yesterday on the road between Chicago and Hot Springs... and it was a hard twelve hours! Just over 700 miles from the driveway of our English-American friends, Graeme and Nikki, to our own. Only stops to top off the petrol, snacks & drinks, and quick potty breaks took us off the Interstates of 80, 57, 55, 40 & finally 30. Had we not encountered two construction delays (1.5 hrs in Illinois & another half-hour in Arkansas), we would have made record time.

I enjoyed Chicago. It was my first visit. Aside from Joe driving us into the city on Monday to deliver our Tiffany lamp to Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, I did the remainder of the driving in & to & from the city center. Yes, I got my first experience of Chicago rush hour traffic in the rain, down the Eisenhauer Expressway (I-290). Wow!! And I think I did extremely well. There were a few that we passed who didn't make it...... I hope they're okay, b/c their cars were really fucked-up.

What amazes me is how expensive it is to live within the city nowdays. Joe directed us to his old neighborhood in boys' town. Simple row house on Melrose... enough room on either side of the houses to drive a car... surprisingly a large number of trees lining the street... and now you can't buy one under $800K, with property taxes running about $8000/month. Hmmm...really a no-brainer to me b/c I know if we had the kind of income it would take to support such a household... I certainly wouldn't want to live in a row-house.

Perhaps many folks think the same thing, because condos are popping up all over the place up there(north side/lakefront/Wrigley Field area) In six blocks, I think we saw probably 10 buildings west of Halsted in the process of being converted. One on Halsted, finished and ready to move in listed for $475K. The pictures were cute. It had a great front deck over the street. The unit was quite small. But to live one flight above one of the gayest streets in the country?!? I dunno... I'm not about 'all that' anymore.