Yesterday, I was working through some website updates — adding Google analytics scripts and more to work sites — when I noticed that people are STILL visiting whatifitdid.com! Why on earth would y’all even come back when I haven’t posted a thing in in over 3 months? Pondering the question made me realize that I really do miss sharing thoughts, so here I am.
I became a major blog slacker when I moved to the new house. The house is fabulous! Do I love it here? Sadly, no. I found that here there’s not one place I can see the horizon (only the backs/fronts/sides of other people’s homes or privacy fences), and I really miss living in a rural setting. I’m no longer married to Crothersville, even though it was my home for over 50 years, but this isn’t the spot for me either. Obviously. For example, you know how much I love photography. It’s my primary hobby… or was. My photo library for 2013 contains over 3,000 images. My 2014 library has a grand total of 711. For example… this is the best I’ve got of a happy place:
It’s not that I don’t want to live in a city exactly… I’ve visited my brother’s home in Henderson, NV and found plenty of things to photograph and enjoy. I could see the horizon there… beautiful mountains and more. Just not here. So I’m hoping you’re where you want to be — and I find my perfect place before I’m too darned old to enjoy it.
Just when I thought I was getting to the point I like where I’m living now, this morning happened. No big deal really — just a foggy fall morning, but still, it sure made me miss “home.”
Typically, I get up, take my laptop and first cup of coffee to the patio room, and start my work day checking email to get things rolling before hitting the treadmill. This morning was no different — except it’s foggy. And it’s fall. My first thought was of the view I had from my house in the Ville on mornings exactly like this — a field of corn or beans with a tree-line in the distance covered in a blanket of early morning fog — a huge difference from what I see from here.
Not so long ago, my son’s ex and her friend had a conversation on Twitter poking fun at people who choose to live in the country (primarily directed at me — mentioning the “country folk,” only not in terms that kind) and insinuating that living in the city somehow makes one superior to those who live in small towns. I thought about that this morning too.
News Flash — it’s geography. I’m the same person no matter if I live in one of the best neighborhoods in a city or on a rural, dead-end road in the surrounding area of a small town. But I sure do prefer one view to the other… and I sure do miss “home.”
Property taxes are due today but I’ve paid mine already! Upon opening my statements a few weeks ago, I felt a little like Barbie…
No one likes to pay taxes and we probably all think they’re too high. But I have a real problem with mine! Let me explain…
I have more than one property… actually, more than two even. Property taxes on the home I lived in — when I lived there — in the Ville were not horribly unreasonable. Like most normal folks I thought they were high, but not out of line with the amounts I knew other people were paying. So when I contemplated the move to Seymour, I figured I would be taxed at a rate that would be painful because of where this house is located in the city, the fact that it’s all brick with an attached garage, and because it’s about 3 times the size of what I already had. But no!
The house in the Ville is nice. It is. (I miss it terribly, in fact.) However, it’s around 1200 square feet with a detached garage on an acre of ground tract. When my homestead credit got moved to the new house and I received my tax bill for the house in the ville I about keeled over! You guys, it’s Crothersville for crying out loud.
So I go online and look up five people I know who own nice homes in the Ville — similar in size and attributes as what I have here in Seymour. Every single one that I looked up had property tax bills that, on average, were $600 a year MORE than mine. These 5 friends pay a significant amount MORE to live in a house in the Ville where they STILL have to drive to Seymour (or Scottsburg) to get the majority of the stuff they need; all but one of the working people in these households STILL have to drive to go to work, and they all STILL have to drive to eat an evening meal outside their home.
