more guest blogging
I kid you not, it snowed again this morning. Pittsburgh is so weird.
While I am submersed in finals and other such business, my mother has generously offered to post another guest blog, the content of which may be found below. So please direct your comments to her :-) I will return to the land of the living in a week or so.
I-55 Out My Back Door
The trip to our son's is Interstate all the way. If good fortune provides a chauffeur, I watch the passing countryside--especially beautiful in April. Trees and shrubs, sparsely green, do not yet conceal the contours of newly-sprouted earth.
(Incidentally, not all of Central Illinois is "blue-bowl-sky" covering fields of corn and beans.)
Quite often I'll think, "What a beautiful building site that would make"--but, oh yeah, it's next to the Interstate.
As we approach the city--by golly!--here are nice new houses with their naked backs turned to "moon" the traffic. The approach to these homes involves traveling several miles to an exit, turning onto a leafy country road, winding through sun-spattered woods, to arrive at this wonderful "secluded" spot where are nestled the lovely expensive homes with the Interstate as a backdrop.
Why, do you think, one would spend so much $$ just to have a back yard that is viewed by millions of travelers--including friends, enemies, strangers, and sometimes the strangest? Does the hum of the traffic become white noise and the travelers, just invisible beings?
To me it's akin to riding a train at night, with the interior lights glowing; I would look out on darkness and wonder who is looking in!
Comments
Snow on April 24th! Never a dull moment in Pittsburgh ;-]
Good luck finishing up your semester.
Posted by: Jane | 24 de Abril 2005 a las 05:21 PM
Hey Jane - sorry I didn't read this until now.
At first I was tempted to think that living so near the interstate was some sort of convenience. But then you describe the long and winding exit to get to the neighborhoods, and I think that price must be the real issue, at least for the developer if not the homeowner. My brother worked for one of these developers for awhile. They built these huge subdivisions where all the houses were pretty much the same. Economies of scale - 100 homes' worth of beige or gray vinyl siding comes cheaper per siding unit than one home's worth. These folks are all about the quick buck. Get the land cheap, build the houses in a matter of days, and get out with money in the pocket. It's a lucrative business, too, because in many areas people are looking for newly constructed suburban homes faster than they can be newly constructed. So they take what they can get, even if it's by the interstate evidently.
Frankly, I don't get it. I live in Minnesota's biggest city. But my street is usually quieter than the rural road where I grew up. Why anybody would move far, far out to escape the noise of the big city, and move next to an loud, dirty, smelly interstate is beyond me.
Posted by: Jim | 29 de Abril 2005 a las 11:29 PM