Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Look up and to the right and witness, buried in a small drop-down box, a solid 90 minutes of toil sunk into wrangling the Internet. Our archives were a mess, but order has been restored, and what you see before you should’ve taken only 15 minutes, were I versed in basic Web language. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some pride here, only it’s quickly eclipsed by the realization that the stuff being chronicled may not have passed our normally stringent standards of quality. Some may argue the new archive function is not entirely unlike cramming a wad of shit into a Rolodex.

The prospect of investing in property feels like a headfirst lunge into concrete. I understand renting is only marginally better than setting my money on fire, but damn it if there aren’t complexities galore in searching for a little permanence. Location. Pros. Cons. Slab. Crawl space. Acoustic ceilings. Housing associations. PMI. Townhouses. Condos. MLS. Zones. Taxes. Tax breaks. Fixed. Variable. Inspections. Closing costs.

It’s enough to make you consider that maybe, just maybe, living in a tree and showering occasionally at the Y could be a viable alternative to all this roof stuff. The first step, I’m told, is to get pre-qualified for a loan. Naturally there are approximately 53 ways to do this. I suppose I only need to pick the one.