By damn, I’m getting so senile I don’t recall where I was and what I was doing ten minutes ago!
Well: the mystery (such as it was) is solved. Ten minutes ago I was charging round the house searching for my keys. I’d put them “away,” which — as you no doubt know from your own experience — pretty much guarantees that you’ll never see the damn things again.
Searched and searched and searched and searched. Then searched again. In their normal residence, inside the sofa table by the front door? No. Of course not.
In the basket that holds all the dog-walking detritus? Nope.
Somewhere in the kitchen? No, no, no, and no again.
In my office? Nay verily.
In the office door’s deadbolt lock? Of course not.
In the car? Naturally not.
In a bathroom? Nay verily, indeed.
Under the bed? Why would one imagine so?
Similarly, under the easy chair in the family room, in the middle bathroom, on the nighstand, somewhere in the mess that is my office desk? HAH, we say to that: HAH!!
Finally found them, in the drawer for the table next to the front door…where I’d already looked three times. Where they belong. Must have looked right at them. Over and over and over again…
***
Drove all around Moon Valley yesterday, peering at Reel Estate.
It’s quiet and tidy and staidly middle-class. But… But… Well: no.
The place hasn’t prospered the way one would have expected. Despite its handsome suburban desert venue, it’s really not a very pretty area. My neighborhood is far more attractive, as is all of North Central, all the way down to the aging McDowell Road. The fancy AJ’s gourmet grocer has closed, as have almost all the smaller shops installed when Moon Valley went in.
Given a choice, I’d take North Central over Moon Valley, any day. Palmcroft: far superior. Or East Camelback. Or Encanto Park…
Why, I wonder?
My guess is simply that the drive from Moon Valley into the North Central and downtown areas is more difficult than it appears. Only one main drag takes you into the Central Avenue office districts, and it’s only three lanes, southbound. You’d grind the enamel right off your teeth if that was the way you had to go to work. And no doubt every morning you’d ask yourself, if that was the route to your office, why the heck you didn’t just buy a place in the North Central district, which would take you half as long to get to work.