Ring Road

Just heard that within a year or so a couple of major traffic arteries will be opened in the middle of my sleepy suburban neighborhood. And they'll be headed to what some propose as "the largest light industrial complex in North America." This of course sent me straight to the online real estate listings: where can I take my family? where will we find parks, peace and quiet? where will we find such great schools? where will we find such gleaming hardwood? And the thing of it is this: nowhere. Being un-millionaires, we won't be moving any closer in to the city, that's for sure, and once you move further out, it's a vast cultural and architectural wasteland of split-levels, postage-stamp-sized lots, bay windows, swag curtains, teeny tiny trees, and SUVs. What I really have my eye on is a sweet wood-framed chalet that I once saw on the river bank at Schwabisch Halle. Or the bouganvillea-swathed villa in the hills at Vallauris. The seaside glass house outside Copenhagen. The provost's flat in London with the wrap-around balcony. The boardwalk condo with the gorgeous wrought iron and glass balcony at Manhattan Beach. The farm in the maple hills near Huntsville. Mike's house on the hill overlooking the eastern slopes of the Rockies. My own personal ring-road has many bridges.