Flight plan

In our 7 months of remodeling and living any where but here, I've noticed some differences in how I live and how others live. Or should I say WHERE I live as opposed to WHERE others live.

First, we are in the path of all the flights that land at Sea-Tac airport. Big jets fly over about once every 3 minutes. They don't fly super low, but we hear them all the same. When we stayed at Doris and Steven's house, they rarely heard them at all. This, mind you, is about a mile from our house, if that, but over the rise of the big hill with all the ritzy houses on it. I'm not certain it has to do with much, I'm just sayin...you know, I'm just sayin. At one point, when we were all talking on the porch, I remember Steven pointing to a jet far off in the sky and saying, "Wow, they never get that close." I couldn't even hear the jet.

Second, there aren't as many cell phones in this 'hood as there are in others. Again, the places where we've stayed are pretty well off, wonder bread white, with meticulous lawns. There are cell phones in our neighborhood, but in the other neighborhoods where we stayed, it was as if every person had a cell phone taped to their ears (some actually did with that wonky ear piece thingy).

Third, in our neighborhood people look at you. In the other neighborhoods, people jumped back when we said hello or worse, didn't even acknowledge our kind warmth and kept on walking -- cell phone plastered to the side of their head.

Next, gas is cheaper, but grocery stores are dirtier. I can't find any decent produce on this side of the tracks, but the price for a head of lettuce is almost the same as the fancy, trendy grocery store in the other housesitting neighborhoods and their heads of lettuce are lush and green and gi-normous. I can't figure out why gas is cheaper in our neighborhood except that maybe in the richer neighborhoods people are willing to pay for and put in $50 worth of gas in their BMWs and Mercedes and Hummers while we would much prefer $30 of gas in our beat up LeBarons and LTDs. Hard to say.

Starbuck's and Tully's are much quietier atmospheres there than here. They also are "overstocked" with help. At the major Starbuck's up the street, 4 employees try to service at least 30 customers at a time while at the major Starbuck's "over there", 10 employees offered service to the same number with much greater efficiency. Ummmm. And the music over there is not nearly as loud as the music over here. Double ummmm.

There are more police here than there, but that's a recent phenomenon as the drug gangs are in a turf war here and the police "have made a commitment to keeping the CD safe from crime" though they aren't doing a very good job of it since the drug crime is just moving south and we live, well, south of the drug street and there's a ton more "drug" garbage around our house than there was 7 months ago when we left.

Still, I must say it's good to be home. Even with the rowdy neighbors and the opossum who slinked through our backyard the other morning and the jets overhead, we love our new house and are excited to work this summer on all the stuff that isn't quite finished. Luckily, we have the great hardware store (affordable, that is) in our 'hood while in the others there is either nothing or the trendy places that charge pentagon prices for screwdrivers and garbage pails.

Ann is right now installing screens in our windows and putzing in the back yard under the roar of yet another jet.

Still. It's nice here. It's home. (Pictures soon, I promise!)