We moved to a temporary shelter close by, it doesn’t require us to stand in line every night to ensure a spot. One feature our temporary shelter has that our house doesn’t is a nice sunset view. However the west facing sun is brutal in the afternoon.

Last time I looked for a place to rent, I had to use something called a newspaper, characters stamp with ink on physical wood fibers, now the only game in town is Craig’s List. Unfortunately all townhouses or condos for rent required a 12 month minimum lease and got snapped up quickly. We got lucky and found a townhouse owned by a snowbird that didn’t require a 12 month lease, on the other hand we can’t keep it longer than 10 months. So there’s a chance we may need to find another place before our house is complete. The rent is so expensive in this town, how do people afford it? Looking through Craig’s List Tokyo, the rents are cheaper there. We played with the idea of finding a place downtown, but we decided the quiet of the suburbs was preferable…must be that age thing.

Another feature our temporary shelter has that our home doesn’t is a homeowners association. I’ve never lived in a place with a homeowners association and the concept of an organization that polices what you can and can’t do with your home is foreign. I understand the motivation but I would never expect it in a country that prides itself on individuality. And you even have to pay for this privilege. The writer of this blog states that in Del Sur, a new community in suburban San Diego, the HOA and Mello Roos rates are $700 a month or $252,000 over 30 years…which is higher than the medium price of a house in the US. I’ve been trying to get a temporary DISH satellite set up on an umbrella stand in the patio, however the HOA approval process takes 45 days and my PVR only works with DISH (^_^;).

We watched the movie Babel this weekend…we didn’t get it…what did it want to say? The moral of the Titanic was “always carry a whistle”, was the moral of Babel “don’t give away your hunting rifle”? While I’m totally off subject, came across this “24” themed commercial where Keifer Sutherland struggles through a band of Japanese schoolgirls and our governor in this commercial for an energy drink and in top physical form.