beans_again?
The Safe House
There's a sort of Forest Gumpian function to our lives. A lot of stuff that happens is not probable. If you rewind, stuff that happened seems unbelievable. This is about the past.
Finding a place to live has been a life-long problem in California made worse today by rental housing being converted to short term rentals. In an upscale part of Silicon Valley, I was renting an industrial, former ambulance quarters: set back from the street and within walking distance of everything. A local government official who knew me had introduced me to the landlord. Window air conditioner? TV antenna? The owner could care less if I customized the place. Best of all, the rent was about half of the market rate.
Meanwhile, I stumbled on information about another local deal: a cottage on an abandoned estate (above). I told a friend who taught undergraduate classes. He reported the property had been foreclosed and was owned by a financial institution. The friend quickly moved in.
About a month later he had an opportunity which included relocation. He called me. "This place is tied up in a lawsuit. It's going to be vacant for years. You should move here," he counseled. "I already called the property manager and told them you're moving in." Well, then. I guess it's a done deal.
It was two and a half acre oak woodland in an area of 1-acre minimum lots. There were several buildings. The main house was over 8,000 square feet. You couldn't see the main house from the street. There was a functional, but cold, swimming pool maintained by a pool service. The place was somewhat overgrown and run down but also unreal. The original owner had been a retail chain tycoon. The garage had been built for carriages so my big Dodge would not fit inside the narrow doorways. I joked about it being a 'safe house.' In reality, it wasn't.
My neighbor had a Rolls Royce Silver something-or-other. Another neighbor had an elevator in their house and a diesel generator set that would light up whenever the power failed. There was a Ferrari in the neighborhood. The trappings of wealth were all over. Almost everyone was friendly.
I lived in one of several out buildings (not shown). The main house is shown. The only furniture in the main house was a table and recliner in the dining room used by me for reading. The dining room is the right portion of the building between the two chimneys. The restaurant-sized kitchen is out of frame to the right. The master bedroom is beyond the two-story portion of the home out of frame at left. There had been a lawn and irrigation at one time. These were weeds during the rainy season. I lived there for several years. At the end of my stay, the place was fully renovated. There was structural work. A note, "The leprechauns have been here and everything of value has been removed," was found behind fire brick during repair of one fireplace. Missing gargoyle heads were replaced. You get the picture.
There were many deer. A large, arthritic buck and I developed an understanding. There was a Great Horned Owl. Stellars Jays and Scrub Jays owned the place. Ravens? Yes. I found a fawn's head and vertebrae in the yard which I much later realized was a mountain lion kill.
The chief of a police department inquired about having a bachelor party. Invite a dozen people with guns over for some heavy drinking and running around the swimming pool? No, thank you.
Whoever has the goods to allocate never forgets himself.
- Leon Trotsky
Journalism grade images.
Source: newly scanned grainy 35mm film negative scanned on 4,000 DPI scanner.
Please do not copy this image for any purpose.
The Safe House
There's a sort of Forest Gumpian function to our lives. A lot of stuff that happens is not probable. If you rewind, stuff that happened seems unbelievable. This is about the past.
Finding a place to live has been a life-long problem in California made worse today by rental housing being converted to short term rentals. In an upscale part of Silicon Valley, I was renting an industrial, former ambulance quarters: set back from the street and within walking distance of everything. A local government official who knew me had introduced me to the landlord. Window air conditioner? TV antenna? The owner could care less if I customized the place. Best of all, the rent was about half of the market rate.
Meanwhile, I stumbled on information about another local deal: a cottage on an abandoned estate (above). I told a friend who taught undergraduate classes. He reported the property had been foreclosed and was owned by a financial institution. The friend quickly moved in.
About a month later he had an opportunity which included relocation. He called me. "This place is tied up in a lawsuit. It's going to be vacant for years. You should move here," he counseled. "I already called the property manager and told them you're moving in." Well, then. I guess it's a done deal.
It was two and a half acre oak woodland in an area of 1-acre minimum lots. There were several buildings. The main house was over 8,000 square feet. You couldn't see the main house from the street. There was a functional, but cold, swimming pool maintained by a pool service. The place was somewhat overgrown and run down but also unreal. The original owner had been a retail chain tycoon. The garage had been built for carriages so my big Dodge would not fit inside the narrow doorways. I joked about it being a 'safe house.' In reality, it wasn't.
My neighbor had a Rolls Royce Silver something-or-other. Another neighbor had an elevator in their house and a diesel generator set that would light up whenever the power failed. There was a Ferrari in the neighborhood. The trappings of wealth were all over. Almost everyone was friendly.
I lived in one of several out buildings (not shown). The main house is shown. The only furniture in the main house was a table and recliner in the dining room used by me for reading. The dining room is the right portion of the building between the two chimneys. The restaurant-sized kitchen is out of frame to the right. The master bedroom is beyond the two-story portion of the home out of frame at left. There had been a lawn and irrigation at one time. These were weeds during the rainy season. I lived there for several years. At the end of my stay, the place was fully renovated. There was structural work. A note, "The leprechauns have been here and everything of value has been removed," was found behind fire brick during repair of one fireplace. Missing gargoyle heads were replaced. You get the picture.
There were many deer. A large, arthritic buck and I developed an understanding. There was a Great Horned Owl. Stellars Jays and Scrub Jays owned the place. Ravens? Yes. I found a fawn's head and vertebrae in the yard which I much later realized was a mountain lion kill.
The chief of a police department inquired about having a bachelor party. Invite a dozen people with guns over for some heavy drinking and running around the swimming pool? No, thank you.
Whoever has the goods to allocate never forgets himself.
- Leon Trotsky
Journalism grade images.
Source: newly scanned grainy 35mm film negative scanned on 4,000 DPI scanner.
Please do not copy this image for any purpose.