This Ain't Arizona
As I mentioned the other day, the possibility exists that I could move to Gilbert, AZ.
However, there's a little problem with Gilbert, AZ - Gilbert isn't actually IN Arizona.
As far as I can tell from two days of driving around the city, Gilbert is actually in
southern California. Or perhaps central Florida. Maybe even coastal Mississipi - no,
that's not right. It's way too urban to be anywhere along the Redneck Riviera.
When I lived in Tucson, we used to say that "the nice thing about Phoenix is that it's
so close to Arizona". Well, it turns out that that's truer than I thought. When I am
wandering around in the East Valley cities of Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Queen Creek,
it doesn't seem to be Arizona
at all. It is absolutely FLAT. Flatter, in fact, than I
recall Kansas as being the one time I've been across that state. You actually can't
see ANY of the mountains that ring the Valley of the Sun from Gilbert.
(N.B. - there were some "hills" on some of the golf courses. They were almost invariably
situated very close to the "lakes" - obviously, the dirt that was in the "lakes" is now
what makes up the "hills" :)
But more than that - it's not DESERT. The homes are mostly landscaped in lush tropicals.
There are large areas that are still farmland - most of what we could identify was just
potato farms. The homes that DID have desert landscaping seemed to be somehow out of place.
Then there's one other little problem with moving to Gibert - it seems that my impression
from last summer - that the area has much cheaper real estate - was either wrong at the time,
or has been outdated. I can't buy - in Gilbert - as much house as I have now - in Anthem -
for what I paid then. So I could solve my commute problem, but I would do so by spending more
money, or by having less home (not to mention giving up the very nice amenities of Anthem -.
which maybe I don't have time to enjoy right now, but which my family does enjoy quite a bit).
The house pictured above is the one that Ethel liked the most - it backs up to a golf course,
and it is a little larger than the house we have now (on a smaller lot). But it's 80K more.
The home that I liked the most is 200 square feet smaller than the one we have now, and 190K
more (ack! phtt!) and it doesn't have a pool (it is, however, on a lake :)
There was a home that is very comparable to our home in Anthem, for about the same price - but
it's tucked away in a neighborhood surrounded by commercial properties, with neither pool nor spa.
It may still be the thing to do, but I'm not in charge of figuring that out. I've told God that
if He wants me to move to Gilbert, then He'd better make it awfully plain to me. I prefer my
guidance in the form of walls and doors - "bless it or block it", as my friend Harlan says. If
He wants me to move to Gilbert, then having my boss tell me "Jim, you HAVE to move to Gilbert"
would do. Or having somebody walk up to my house and offer me an extra 100K for it, cash on the
barrelhead. (I tried to come up with a third "or" here, and couldn't think of one :)
My experience of last year has made me cautious (read "fearful" :) of trusting my own intuition;
while things aren't maybe the way I'd like them to be right now, I have no desire to take any
chance on them turning out WORSE. As Mr. Heinlein pointed out, the difference between "bad" and
"worse" is much sharper than the difference between "good" and "better" :)
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