You are listening to ‘300 Seconds with Eduardo Soliz,’ and this is episode number 95, “Home Less,” so let the 300 Seconds begin!
Because life (or something like it) happened, I sold my house a few months ago. Thus, after five years, I’m no longer a homeowner, and there are a few things I already miss about having a house.
To begin with, there is the notion that the place where I live is no longer ‘my’ place anymore. I’m staying with some friends for the short term, and God bless ’em, because they’ve been pretty awesome. At the same time, their house isn’t my house, you know? When I owned my house, I could do whatever I wanted to, like using an old CD to fix a hole in the drywall or putting the TV set in front of the fireplace. That feeling of ‘ownership’ is pretty nice and the lack thereof will continue to bother me until I own my home again.
I never had a garage growing up; my parent’s house didn’t have one, and so I didn’t see a need for one on the rare occasions when I was offered one as an option when leasing an apartment. Once I started making use of my house’s garage, though, I loved it. I remember being at the laundromat folding clothes one day, when it started raining. I grumped about the rain for a few moments before coming to the delightful realization that I HAD A GARAGE AND I DIDN’T HAVE TO GET WET. I got spoiled by having a garage; now I have to park my vehicle outside and have it, and me, get rained on. But at least I have a place to park at, at my friend’s house; I’m really not looking forward to fighting with fellow apartment dwellers for prime parking places in the future.
Another thing I’m going to miss is solitude. I like being by myself, especially after a day of dealing with silly people at work. This isn’t really a big deal right now, because my roommates are cool, but once I move into an apartment, having people on the other side of the wall is probably going to drive me nuts…again
But the biggest thing that I miss the most about my old house is having natural gas. It’s the best thing for cooking, it’s less expensive, and I’m sorry, but you just can’t heat tortillas properly on an electric stove or even one of those fancy pants convection ranges. And no, I am never ever, EVER going to put a tortilla into the microwave because that’s just WRONG.
This has been 300 Seconds, the next episode will be posted after I warm a tortilla in my toaster oven. I am Eduardo Soliz, if you’d like to listen to, or read, more of my words and short stories, visit my website at Eduardo Soliz dot com. Thank you for listening!
Eduardo Soliz 