"I could move out here. I could move out here and instead of, on the weekends, instead of driving out to Harrisburg or York or Harpers Ferry or Dundalk or. . .or how many more times can I drive out to Hagerstown and Cumberland? Instead of driving out there I can go to places like 'Vail' or 'Breck' (and I'll do that too, I'll say, 'Breck', HA!). Or I'll drive out to right friggin' here. Where are we?" I thought. We weren't in the plains and we weren't in the mountains but there were mountains all around and long expanses of flat plains or farmland and desert type of foliage and rocky, craggy, terrain. Every once in a while we'd pass a huge ranch nestled deep in a valley between 2 hills and in the middle of hundreds of flat acres of land and fields of golden bromegrass.
"My life would change alright. Talk about a shock to the system, to just up and move out here? Out here? I mean, not to one of the ranches but to Denver. In my life I have started over before. Scrap everything, throw it all out the window and just start over. You've never seen me do it before but you do know I've had to in the past, seriously. And there's a beauty and a value in that, there really is. And right now, I mean, I could do it. What's to stop me? No children, no romantic relationship, and honestly, if I was in a romantic relationship I don't know that I would let it stop me from doing anything I damned well pleased. . .ha ha! Right. But I'm not in one, that's the point. Get my drift? I could drop everything right now and go. You would think the part about leaving Baltimore would be the easy part, I mean, who the hell wants to be in Baltimore, ever? There is no logical reason to buy a home in the city, the property value is so overrated, particularly for the quality of life. You'll pay through the nose (or at least I would have to struggle to pay any mortgage in a property in a neighborhood that MIGHT tolerate my being there, and possibly, if the city turns around, turn a small profit). You have the privilege of paying $230,000 for a two-and-a-half bedroom, 2 story home with one bathroom and sinking joints so that your kitchen floor needs leveling every 5 years and your backyard is a 10'x15' plot of land cordoned off by a chain link fence. Tack on another $60 a month for ground rent, money you owe to someone else who owns the land that your house was built on however many years ago. You don't even get the land when you buy a house there. Everything in that town is such a struggle. And out here? I'm sure there are things that would be difficult but so far the most difficult thing I've noticed is my ability to breathe. I could use a cigarette too."
I stopped looking out the window and watched Dawn and Ryan for a while, while the wind made that wah-wah-wah in my ears and kept things quiet for just a bit longer.
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