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Memories of Living in a Real House The Sole Proprietor is sitting now at the kitchen table in 
his sister and
brother-in-laws' house, they've moved into a new one since his last visit and
this is the first time that he's had a chance to see it. In the Bay Area where
he lives, this house in a halfway decent neighborhood would cost, well, way
too much, high six figures. The kitchen-family room breakfast nook
where he's sitting is as large as his whole apartment and much nicer than his
whole apartment as well. This is one of the depressing little numbers about living
in the Bay Area, there are so many people that the existing housing stock isn't
nearly adequate to house them and they won't let anyone build new ones to
accommodate the overflow.
That means the house he's staying in here in Oregon,
Ah well, life. Nice house, but lots of rain. The rain started as the train descended from the mountains down into the Willamette river valley. The mountains had been cloudy, but the sun had broken through on occasion and the trees and ground were covered with snow. Kind of nice, although the Sole Proprietor rather likes snow from the comfort of a sleeping car with the heat on full blast, the idea of snow, in other words, rather than the subject itself up close and in his face.
And that's the trade off. Nice houses that people can
So tomorrow we drive to Seattle up highway 5. Should be nice.
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if it were located in the Bay
area, would only be for the very rich, 3500 square feet, five bedrooms, the usual
amenities like hot tubs, tiled island in the kitchen with four miles of cabinets,
multiple car garage, nice office area, dining room, living room and family room -
kitchen table area - kitchen area that is, again, as large as his apartment.
buy or rent, but in a
weather environment that drives a certain percentage of the population to
suicide. Seattle is the same way. The Sole Proprietor grew up north of Seattle
and remembers playing outside in the rain. You played outside in the rain or
you didn't play outside for whole months at a time, so you learned about rain
gear and keeping under the trees and coming back inside when you got wet and
cold. Nothing like wet and cold in the rain to make you think of places that need
irrigation systems in the summer, make you willingly put bricks in your toilet tank
and take showers out of a bucket in the bath.
He'll shoot what pictures
he can, of course. In the small chance the sun will be out tomorrow or Sunday, he'll try
to get out and shoot some film in Ballard down by the docks, get some shots of the
fishing boats. He knew this area well when he was in school and, from a distance at
least, it hasn't changed. Sole Proprietors like that, floating through old haunts
with a camera recording the old places and nodding at all the expatriate Californians
as they pass by looking lost and frazzled without a sun.