Riddle Me This

Q: How do you turn all of Kansas City's interstates into parking lots?

A: Put an inch of snow on the ground.

My evening commute that usually takes 20ish minutes took 1.5 hours tonight. Because of 1 inch of snow.

One.

I said it before, and I still stand by this fact: Kansas City drivers suck. I hate them.


End Blog.

Lightning and Fire!

This happened last week, but I didn't get around to blogging about it because I'm lazy. I'm not sure if it made national news or not, but it was the only thing that was on tv here on Tuesday night. I know, because I was looking for election coverage and couldn't find it.

Lightning hit this giant petroleum tank and it caught on fire. Which is totally cool - even Mother Nature is against us using gas and hell bent on increasing prices.

Here's a summary story online: Lightning Strike Causes Petroleum Fire in Kansas City

Then, on Wednesday morning on my way to work, this is what I saw, since the firefighters could only let the tank burn out and there was a bunch of smoke. Take that, Mother Nature!






Traffic sucked that morning, and pretty much every other morning this past week. I think that my honeymoon is over. People found out that it wasn't that bad with all the construction going on, and they came back... and ruined everything.

Oh well. Maybe I'll have to start waking up earlier again... or continuing being a few minutes late for work.


End Blog.

Honeymoon

Since the Paseo Bridge Construction Project has started, my commute has been heaven. I can get to work in 18-20 minutes. Regularly. It's totally awesome.

I think that the majority of people have already started using alternative routes and there isn't so much construction going on during rush hours. They've promised to keep two lanes open during those times for all three years of the project. It's working really well. I have no idea what kind of actual construction they are doing, but I don't care. They've already made my commute better. Go MoDOT... or whoever it is that's out there.

I realize that this honeymoon period will someday come to an end, but I'm hoping for much later rather than sooner. I suppose we shall see... but for now, I don't have to get out of bed until 7am. And I like it.


End Blog.

Goodbye Paseo, Hello Christopher S. Bond

Road construction on the 29/35 interchange super "We're Gonna Make Nikki's Commute Hell for Three Years" project is starting on April 21st. They're going to start restriping lanes, putting up barriers/retaining walls, paving, and moving traffic all around. (I got all this information at http://kcicon.com/)


You see, MoDOT must have found out that I moved or something. When I first came here they decided to renovate the I-435 bridge over the Missouri River because they knew that's how I got to work. And, being the rockstar that I am, I suppose they wanted to make my commute super nice. However, they made it really annoying for quite a while during the construction phase of the project. But, sure enough, my commute was pretty great after they were done.

Well, since I moved, I don't use I-435 anymore. MoDOT must have found out. And so... being the rockstar that I am, I suppose they want to make my commute super nice... again. Project completion is set for summer of 2011. This is a much bigger project... And will be annoying for a much longer time. (Like a good three years.)

Plans are to widen the road to six lanes, build a new cable-stayed bridge (expandable to eight lanes and capable of accommodating a future bicycle/pedestrian facility) just east of the existing Paseo Bridge, and then tear down the Paseo. Apparently, it's going to look something like this:


I'm thrilled that this is happening. It really needs to because the roads just can't handle the traffic volume. I'm in traffic every morning for a very short amount of time. You see, traffic backs up long before I get on I-35, but I enter the road at the busiest spot: at I-35 and Armour 210. (Mostly to avoid the traffic beforehand.)

This is the first interchange they're going to reconstruct. My entrance ramp is closing on May 12 and won't open again until late summer. (The off ramp to 210 from 35 is staying closed for a full 12 months.) They have an alternate route set up, however, I think that the traffic will be horrible there and it may be impossible to merge onto I-35. We'll see. Oh, also, they're adding ANOTHER light on 210 for all of this. As if there weren't already enough lights on 210 right there. There's three in a row!

I might start driving down Route 9 into the city and getting on 71 south from there, although there's a ton of construction downtown right now, too. And they're offering that up as an alternate route, along with Antioch and Prather, which I currently use. So, no matter which way we slice it, Nikki's commute is going to be hell for the next three years. Hooray! Those MoDOT people should be really happy to know they're doing such a good job.

I guess I could always try getting on 35 right at Antioch and seeing what happens...

But really, what this all boils down to is that I'm going to have to start leaving my house before 7:30am. For three years. Which means getting up earlier. For over three years. Probably starting April 21st.

Siiiiiiiigh. It's hard enough already! This better be the coolest bridge, ever, when it's finished. And make my commute less than 20 minutes. At any time of the day. And it should change the speed limit to 65 mph.

And increase the resale value of my home.

Where IS my flying Jetsons car, anyway?


End Blog.

Ownership

I'm not sure why I continue to try to be a homeowner. I've been looking at houses since early summer, and yet, I still do not own one. My lease will be up at the end of November and I have sworn to be moved out by then. I even have "get out of jail free" paperwork that releases me from my lease with no penalties as long as I give them 30 days notice. And all I had to do was file two police reports to get it!

I currently have broken wood around my back storm door and a missing window screen because the CSIs took it as evidence eons ago. I'm wondering if these things will come out of my security deposit. It's not like that money provided me with any security, whatsoever.

Although, it's really funny that I'm even worrying about it... because I have come to realize that I am NEVER going to own a house. Granted, the first house I made an offer on was a little impulsive, but it was a nice house with a great location, although the neighborhood probably could have been nicer. But, in my opinion, they wanted too much money for the house. When they finally did sell it, it sold for $3,000 over my final offer, so I guess they made out okay.

The second house I put an offer on was in a slightly less desirable location - and by this, I mean that it makes my commute longer. But it had a finished basement that was pretty darn sweet. And as an added bonus, he was leaving his refrigerator behind, so I wasn't going to have to purchase one of those. I tried to work the washer and dryer into the deal. No go. Even though I gave him a full priced offer for his house and only asked him to pay $2,000 in closing costs, he decided that the deal was not favorable enough for him. Even dropping the washer and dryer from the deal, he was not happy.

Three days later he's asking my realtor why I didn't take his "counter offer" of no closing costs while I pay full price for his home. It's a super deal! FOR HIM. Needless to say, he's not getting a Christmas card from me this year.

It reminds me of the Calvin and Hobbes comic (I tried to find it but was unable to) where Calvin's Dad says, "The world isn't fair, Calvin," to which he replies, "I know Dad, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?"

Which brings me to house number three. Third time's a charm? Well... maybe. If you jump through these hoops first.

House three completely changes my commute, which I was not thrilled about until I drove home from work to house number three. It took me 24 minutes, which is quite comparable to the time it currently takes me. I will have to learn the area a little better, but it's the nicest neighborhood I've looked in, and has the best school district of all of them as well. (Not that I plan on sending kiddies off to school, ever, but it's good for resale value.) Of course, that also means this house has the highest taxes as well. Long story short, I made the third offer.

Today, I heard nothing all day. No counters, no refusals, nothing. One hour before the offer was to expire, I get this story from my agent:

The seller's agent is in California. His office emailed my faxed offer to the wrong email address and he spent the day not knowing that an offer existed. After my agent got into contact with him in California, we found all of this out. So, another email was sent to the correct email address. But he needs to look the offer over before he shows it to his sellers and gee-golly-whiz, couldn't we extend the offer until tomorrow? Okay, sure. I'd still like for them to counter offer me (who am I kidding, I want them to flat out just freaking accept the thing already).

So, I sit and wait another day before I figure out what is going on with house number three. It'd be super nice if they felt guilty about making me wait over 24 hours with this whole thing and just signed off on it, but this is me here... that's not going to happen.

I have so little faith in this whole house buying process. I'm not sure why I'm still looking, other than the fact that I don't want to have to struggle to find a parking space outside of my apartment, I don't want my apartment broken into, I'd really like a house with a yard for my dog to play, and a place to stick my car so that I have a winter free of scraping ice from the windshield. Oh, and the number one reason: I don't throw money away on rent every month and actually own something 30 years from now.

So I wait.

Needless to say, should I get this house, I will be spending a ton of money. I'll need a refrigerator, a washer, and a dryer... and some lamps for the living room because there are no overhead lights. And eventually some area rugs, smoke detectors, cable installation (who are we kidding, I'd get this put in when I closed on the house!), window coverings, a garage door opener, and a small portion of fence to completely enclose the back yard. And with all those things, I still want a house.

I am sick of living in an apartment when I could be in a real house for an additional $200 a month. Totally worth it.

Dear people who probably still don't know I made an offer on your house...
Please let me buy it.
Thank you.


End Blog.