The Reason I Don't Own A House

In my life I've done more than my share of home maintenance and I don't even own a home. It's how I made a living into my college years and a few beyond. I've always considered buildings to be permanent. Cars wear out, refrigerators go on the fritz, jackets get holes at the elbows. But buildings were special. My elementary school might not have been St. Peter's, but it was always around, right where it had always been.
   But as I've been walking around the Miracle Mile district I've seen that buildings are as impermanent as everything else, it's just that their depreciation schedule is a little longer.
   I see a Shakey's that's been shuttered, a vacant building that clearly used to be an upscale department store, art deco office buildings and theaters sitting empty, their gold trim now faded. What was once clearly a walkable neighborhood is now a district for day residents, commuters like me who get the hell out as fast as they can at the end of the day. Everything used to be something else. And everything is slowly fading away.
   I remember when Windsor Park Mall was under construction. My friends and I would ride our bikes to look at the huge hole in the ground. Its grand opening was a huge event, klieg lights, balloons, media coverage, the whole magilla. It was the hang out when I was in high school. Ten years later it was in decline, and twenty years later it was closed. Shuttered and left for the rats and cockroaches. In my lifetime I've seen a huge structure born, descend into middle age, and die.
   This is a long way around to saying that I don't own a home because I'd rather not fight the inevitable decay. At least not right now. Houses need a lot of maintenance, and all the effort needed to fight the breakdown is really just trying to sweep the tide back with a broom. I'd rather live in my apartment, with no working elevator, with termites, with central heating that isn't hot and cooling that isn't cool because it's somebody else's responsibility to get it fixed.
   Plus, now that I'm working, I'm not home most of the day anyway.

COMMUTE: there - 38 minutes back - 46 minutes to my fencing lesson
CONTRACT COUNTDOWN: 75 days