Today I saw a house for sale that I now crave. I have no illusions that I can actually have it, considering my "income," but I can still fantasize. I jogged over the river today into the half of the park where I don't go as often. I climbed down through the trees to the riverbank (where several of the giant carp I previously saved were cavorting sluggishly, as is their wont.) Across the river I could see a few little docks amongst the foliage, where people's lots back onto the river.

I decided I'd go back across the river and up that street (just for the heck of it) to see how those riverbank folk live, but from the front. It's a nice neighborhood, part of the "historic district." Of course there just had to be a house for sale (by owner) on the first block, so I sneaked around the lot just to imagine myself in it. It's a brick house, with a big tree-riddled yard that is quite overgrown in places, and at the back slopes steeply down to the river. I picture trimming away the underbrush and saplings to have an unobscured path down to the river, where I could have a canoe. I imagine my morning routine including feeding not only the squirrels and arboreal birds, but ducks! (And most likely, giant carp.)

I called the automated info-number when I got home, which informed me further that the house has newly refinished hardwood floors and a fireplace. And "old-world charm," whatever that might be. However, I am so uninformed about the house market in general that I couldn't tell whether the price they mentioned was in--thousands? Tens of thousands? Binary? What? Why can't they just say exactly what the price is ("nine hundred thousand dollars!") instead of this weird euphemistic numeric code ("twelve, fifty-four, eight!" ["hut!"])—-what the hell is that supposed to mean? None of those are the actual numbers the recording said, of course.

I wonder if it would be even close to feasible to pay on something like that instead of paying rent. What if I rented half of it to one of the newer PhD students, or something...