Places we Lived

Growing up in a small town in central Illinois, it was flat, corn or beans, and the only pretty part of it all was a park called Weldon Springs. My sophomore year spent in Arizona, opened my eyes about how to live somewhere and see beauty wherever you are. The part of the town where I lived was at the bottom of a knoll and had a gorgeous view of the Superstition Mountains.

After moving back to Clinton, I noticed different things within town that made it beautiful. That was the start of my photography hobby. 

After graduating, I joined the Air Force. I was in Texas, Maine, New York, and all during that time, traveling and living, I saw the beauty of the view. 

There is a British TV show called An Idiot Abroad. In one of the shows, the “idiot” made an extremely insightful observation. While visiting Petra in Jordan, he was sitting in a small cave hovel across from the entrance to Petra. He said, “I would rather live in this small cave looking at that beautiful entrance than live inside Petra, looking at this cave.” It is really how I have lived my life...to the detriment of my wife. 

We have lived all over but mostly between Washington DC area and Illinois. This last time moving to Illinois had been a rough ride. In the past 10 years, we moved to Clinton (my home town) after getting a contract at State Farm in Bloomington. The house in Clinton was... well... Clinton is economically depressed. It was bad. The house was falling apart and the landlord didn’t really care. It was drafty and cold. We had feral cats in the back yard driving our cat crazy. 

After a year, we moved to Bloomington. We found a beautiful area called Founders Grove and we rented the top floor to be in the canopy of trees. The view was fantastic. It was the typical nice Midwest, old growth neighborhood. But the inside of the house was...again, bad. The kitchen had power issues, and we had raccoons, possums, and a swarm of bees living in the walls. Just to add to the challenges, my mother in law moved into the downstairs flat (it was a two flat) and had more issues. The polar vortex that year went right through the house since it had no exterior insulation. 

Bloomington got boring and we were driving to Chicago every weekend. When my wife said “we go to Chicago every weekend anyhow, maybe you should get a job”, I did. I had a new offer a week later and we moved 3 weeks after that. My new job was for a company affiliate of the prestigious University of Chicago. It was the mother load of all jobs. The one thing I did NOT want to do is live in the suburbs. We did that once before in a town called Plainfield and it nearly ended my marriage. I need to find somewhere in the city near campus. A friend of mine from State Farm lived in Hyde Park where UofC is located and said to check it out. We did. While driving in the neighborhood, I called one of the rental places and they said they have a new set of apartments for rent with immediate occupancy. I could tour it an hour later. 

The apartment we are in and have been in for the past soon to be 6 years was the first one we saw. And i walked in, and looked out the windows with a 90 degree view of the lake and said “sold”. It has everything we need and the rent for the city was extremely reasonable compared to others downtown. Honestly though, this is a very nice cave looking at a very nice Petra (www.shorelandchicago.com). We signed the papers that day. We came back a week later and signed the papers for my Mother in laws apartment as well.

This coming May, the era of this apartment will end. With COVID, several things have happened. First, living in the city, with all the wonderful restaurant, entertainment, theater, and shopping options, has been denigrated by closings and social distancing. The city has done a good job of taking it seriously, but it has still impacted movement within heavily. Second, my company is changing because of it. Prior, we had some people working one day a week from home. Now that everyone can and has proven work from home is viable for company operations, and will remain this way through the end of the year and likely into June, the company is likely flipping the preference. Now it may be work from home for everyone, and voluntary office time. More and more companies are moving that way.

This means, I can be anywhere in the world as long as I have a stable internet connection. So we are looking at specific suburbs. We still love Chicago. But if I am going to work from home, I need an office. We need a mother in law suite. And we need a fantastic view.