Where Ever You Go...

Right so I've taken my show on the road once again, moving from Las Vegas to Denver Colorado has been, to say the least; an experience. I've lived in quite a few places pretty much all over the world and still find myself amazed by the subtle differences in cultures from city to city, state to state and country to country. These are the things that truly fascinate me as an observer of the human condition.

My new job requires quite a bit of traveling through out the state of Colorado, my 'home base' is in a town called Brighton. The first thing that hit me about Brighton was everything was pretty much associated with English culture. The town name, street names (Bromley, Sussux etc) are all English in origin, yet the counties are named after US Presidents. Brighton is in Adams County. Yes a great deal of planning usually goes into just about every city as it is plotted to actually become a city. Guess the state planners were thinking themselves cleaver when they named this town and all of it's streets and what not. The thing that stands out is the fact that it is a good clip outside of any real established metro areas (about 40 miles north of Denver Metro)and the folks who live and work out there consider themselves to be country folk, vs being from the big city (Denver and all of it's burbs). In this case I would have to agree with them, after 7 years of looking at sand and dust in Las Vegas, seeing actual working farms, livestock and tractors on the main road was a bit of a culture shock.

Which has made for a slight dilemma on my part, I want to buy a home here in Colorado, but as I said the nature of my job keeps me moving all about the state, while my home base is considered Brighton. How long will that assignment last? No one including my boss has an answer to that. So do I roll the dice and buy out in the country, buy a lawnmower and some cattle fence; or do I stick with what I know best, urban survival; and find a spot in the city? As of now I've rented a nice townhome pretty much dead center to all of the places I need to go. So now any one with an ounce of sense would say, why not buy your home in that area. Yeah that was exactly my thought, until I started looking at homes in that area. California and Nevada had spoiled me to what a house could or should be like. Nice and new, great square footage and logical floor layouts. This is not the case in the Denver Metro area. The majority of the homes were built from the 1950's to maybe early 1980's. Damn near everyone of them is either one car garage or carport (not really good when you have two drivers and two cars in your family in a place where it tends to be cold and snowing). While the majority of them have basements (which I think is totally cool)most that bothered to finish the basement have a wonderful 1970's feel to them and appear to have been done by the 3 stooges contracting firm.
Yes there are new homes being built, I've seen some really nice ones too, but these new constructions make you pick an area in which to live (just not alot of room for new construction in Denver proper). This is where the fun begins.

As an observer of the human animal and one of the species meself, we all make judgments on things based on what we see first, vs what we either already know or can find out. Race, creed, religion, sex and all of that aside, we as humans also know when we are around our 'kind'. That may sound like it can slip into racism or even sexism but stick with me. As I mentioned in an earlier post we all know how to spot those we most closely associate our own lives with, these folks become our friends, associates and neighbors. As much as many of the counter culture groups of the world wish it upon us, we as human animals will never live in total peace and harmony. By our very nature, with no other input than a visual scan and a few moments for thought and sizing up; we can usually tell if another person is 'one of our kind'. This can be as simple as the above mentioned country vs city folks.

So now it is time to decide where to 'put down roots' in Colorado (OK we have alot of time but I like to look around and plan ahead). Once again this is made easy and convenient by the fact that my job has me driving around all over the state. We are also talking about buying a house here, not a loaf of bread or gallon of milk. Pretty much once you've chosen a house and community it's pretty permanent (yes you can always move, but Vegas has shown me that selling a home, moving out of the home, finding a new home, buying the new home, then deciding your going to move and start the process a new - SUXORS!) Plus buying a home should not be a lite situation, no just walking down the road going humm that one looks good, done deal. More so these days with home owners associations, covenants, asshole neighborhood wardens and stupid rules in general. I understand why HOA's were formed, I understand a need for 'reasonable rules' and all of that, but it seems that these whack-o's tend to forget a very basic premise. It is my property and my home, I pay the mortgage and am responsible for the up keep blah blah blah. My biggest peev so far without buying a home yet... the yard. Vegas said you know what, we don't have alot of water; so don't plant grass. WOOT! I'm down in that! I freaking hate grass, mow it trim it, take weeds out of it. Give it food and feed it alot of water, what the hell??? I got 3 mouths to feed inside the house, I don't need a few thousand clorofilled, needy mouths as well.

So far when ever I've brought up the topic of Xerascaping the front yard I've been met with the scrunchy face, you know the one that everyone makes when you tell them something they dislike or can not comprehend. So here I am thinking this is pretty much out, so now I start asking about the absolute minimum amount of 'required' grass area I need. 'Don't worry about that, it's included in the cost of the house we'll get that taken care of for you', Is the usual answer. WOAH!
Wait a minute here, not only can I not put in what I want on my property, your telling me that I have to take care of what ever you the builder decide to give me? Wait a minute who's house is this anyway??? So there you go readers, once again without really stopping to understand what we have done to ourselves, we have given away yet another freedom.

Now I know that there are those that would say, just take the lawn and mow it and what not you lazy bastard. While lazy does play a small part in this scenario, it is not the point. The point is this, you as a home buyer are making a commitment (for many a 30 to 50 year long payment commitment)to buy a home that you are going to work to pay off, but in the end it belongs to you. But depending upon where you buy; that payment commitment may never end as HOA's are famous for writing out their little tickets for your homes 'violations'. Non payment of these fines means that the HOA can basically take your house and property away from you. What the fuck is this noise? It's loss of freedom is what it is, one more set of jackholes YOU said could push folks around (maybe not at first but eventually you elect these jackholes), which for you is all fine and well; until it's your turn to get pushed.

I'm all for keeping the streets clean, houses painted or looking 'nice' (aesthetics is totally in the eye of the beholder) and generally not ruining your property value. But now your telling me that a yard I didn't want in the first place is now, not within your code and I could (if left uncorrected)lose the right to live in my house on my property. Who the hell thought up this fucked up bullshit. Who is to say that a few houses out of a whole neighborhood with rocks vs grass would bring down the value of the whole neighborhood?

Who indeed? Why my friend in the end; you've no one to blame but yourself. WHAT? That's idiotic you say, or is it. Remember at the top of this post how I was going on about living around 'Your kind of people'? Ahh has the light come on? Yes you and your kind of people not only form the commities you also make the rules and in the end turn them on one another. How do you like 'your people' now? If you (much like I know I will be)turn out to be the person who stands up and says 'NO' you will become a target of every bullshit little pissy rule they can dig up. You had trash in front of your house, fined. Your bush is 1/2 too tall, fined. You were seen wearing blue on yellow day, fined.

So what is a perspective home buyer to do? You like the house, you like the area but the rules seem a bit out of whack. Sucks to say, but if you want any peace in your life and any form of self respect, just say NO to jackholes who tell you how to live your life and how do handle your personal property.

So in the end today's rant is really more about freedom and how many of us give it away on a daily basis and don't even stop to think about it. Think I'm wrong? Check your week out and take time to think about your actions. Went to the ATM this morning to get some money, were you charged to get your own money out of the bank? Sucker! Why are you paying someone to hold and distribute your money? They should be paying you to let them use it while you are not using it, sometimes known as interest; but are you really getting a good piece of that pie? There goes a small chunk of freedom. Traffic lights now tell you when you can go or have to stop. Sure there is a safety issue involved, but in the end; you've given up just a small piece of freedom. You must pay a landlord or mortgage company for a place to live - basically planting yourself where you can easily be found - more freedom lost. I know that over all we all decide how much crap we are going to take, how much of ourselves we are going to sacrifice; and how much of good old common sense freedom we are going to give away. My point here is to open your eyes to what you may be taking for granted or not thinking about at all. You have a choice, and I found in most cases the easiest choices are the ones that cost the most...in the end.