Category: December 2018

A few weekends ago I had a short bout of fairly bad depression (I cried for about 4 days). A couple of things have come out of that. First, I’ve been exercising more, which definitely helps. Secondly, John has come up with a potential improvement to the 2-house problem. It’s not a perfect solution. There is no perfect solution because our jobs are 70 miles apart.

Earlier this fall I was looking for houses near the river in Albuquerque. The river valley is the most beautiful area of New Mexico, in my opinion. It’s green in the spring and summer, and in the fall the trees are beautiful. Those areas are within a short commuting distance from John’s job, but is too far for me to commute to my current job. I would have to find a new job.

I feel confident about my ability to find a new job, but I like my current job. And I also feel a certain responsibility to my team. And I’ve had a lot of jobs I haven’t liked. I know I can find a job, but can I find another job I like?

So now John is advocating an area called Eldorado. It’s a flat, brown, desert mesa outside of Santa Fe. He likes it because there’s long walking trails that we appreciate for jogging, dog walking, and biking. Also it’s rural; most of the roads are dirt, and the lot sizes are mostly 1-2 acres. Eldorado is actually a lot like Placitas except flatter, and it doesn’t have the big expensive homes. It’s an affordable section of Santa Fe because there’s no trees; it’s not in the foothills to the east of Santa Fe, nor is it close-in near the Old Town Plaza where all the rich celebrities with big second homes want to be.

Here’s an example of how Eldorado looks from above:

In contrast, here’s how the North Valley and Corrales looks along the river;

Here’s a random screenshot of Eldorado in google street view. Of course that’s summertime; the absolute greenest it gets. It’s just all brown now.

I don’t find it inspiring, but the main problem is that Eldorado is 70 miles from where John works. At first he was thinking he could do that commute, and I’m like, no. Hell no. That’s almost 3 hours on the freeway each day. There’s no way. He’s going to need to have somewhere to stay in Albuquerque for mid-week.

If we do still need to have 2 houses, we have realized it makes more sense for the main house to be near my job than near his. For one thing, he is more comfortable with a certain amount of commuting than I am. He also lives out of a suitcase better than I do. I seem to think I need an entire closetful of clothes, matching shoes, matching jewelry, matching scarves, and matching coats for the week, and I’m still missing things. I also seem to need an entire kitchen full of fresh organic food and multiple small kitchen appliances. He eats cereal with sunflower butter.

So we’re thinking that if we can get his vehicles and garage tools into the same house as my wardrobe and kitchen gadgets, we’ll actually feel like we’re living together. Unfortunately, when buying my townhome in Santa Fe, it didn’t occur to me to prioritize garage space. So that’s where Eldorado comes in. Lots of space to park the boat, the camper van, the 4Runner, the old truck, and the Mini, and all the mysterious stuff that’s in his garage in Placitas.

I still just want to move to Mexico, but he is not currently taking me seriously when I say that. I’m probably not taking myself seriously when I say that either. We can’t afford to retire in this country and move to Austin or Tucson or somewhere warm and be done with the rat race. The main problem is that his pension doesn’t come with medical coverage. And medical is such a wild card in the US. You can’t budget for it.