I generally put off procrastinating as long as possible, but sometimes you have to step up and make the big decision - or punt, so I opted to punt for another year?

Four years ago late September I flew into Tortillaville literally for a single day to find a house and my good luck was also my bad luck. I found the place I'm living in - and I love it, well for the most part, other than being too expensive, next to construction as previously noted, on dusty dirt streets, isolated from civilization by fields of topes and in an area with frequent power outages - it's great?

I said to the agent, I'll take it for 6 months to get down here and I'll wire money tomorrow. Once here and after unpacking some boxes and beginning to see if I could make it in MX and if I liked it enough to stay I started looking around and discovered I was in a rather special place (never had this luck before?) and maybe I should consider staying. I asked to extend to a year, but the rental agent said the owners wanted to sell the house and wouldn't extend. Of course she had no idea who she was talking to and what a challenge she had just offered.

Again with some luck I found friends of the owners who gave me their email address in Taiwan where they are teaching. Eventually negotiations allowed me to take over the whole place and here I am 3 1/2 years later. But, sometimes change is good and reducing my expenses would definitely be good, so I decided to explore "moving the weather station" to new terrain and the hunt began. I started reading real estate websites (that was depressing) went to a couple (even more depressing) I put a note on the weather page and got several offers. In the mean time I was driving areas I thought Max would enjoy, I'm not particular you understand, but he's real finicky about where he lives? I was looking for places that "felt" like home, hopefully with "Se Renta" signs although you don't see many, people tend to work through agencies or word-of-mouth, but I put some miles on me and the Jeep looking.

I looked at houses, mostly drive by (I can tell a lot, it either feels like home or not) all the way from $400 a month fixer uppers (not home) to places in gated communities (maybe home?) from the flat to the upper slopes of Gobblers Knob, mostly to no avail. When I was preparing to move down here I thought I'd hate living behind walls (I will admit we have a lot of land inside our walls by comparison to most places) but I found this lifestyle is actually very much me, at least at this time in my life. If I want to be social I open the big gate and go out, if not I close that big old gate and live in my little park - and now that the Canucks have flown N it's really quiet here, well except for the construction next door, but that doesn't count as social discourse.

I really began to like a place called Vista del Lago, a development at the Chapala Country Club about 5 miles E of Chapala. In that development I found the perfect house and while it's for sale, it's also for rent - not cheap of course - things I want never are? This place sits at the top of Vista del Lago overlooking the golf course with a view of the lake that is killer. It's modern, perched on the side of the hill with multiple levels and generally "IT IS ME"  - pretentious, prestigious, ostentatious - but all in good taste you understand? - and best of all, Max approved. But, I, we, want a 2 year lease and they wouldn't agree to that and we won't move for only one year - and so far I haven't figured a way around this challenge.

The quest continued to two other houses in the same group, somewhat less spiffy even though one is on the 1st fairway, but only 1 level, I want 2. Next I explored the Raquet Club (golf didn't work, tennis anyone?) about 5 miles W of the Village (you can see the pattern, I don't want to live in, or near, town). I was offered a house at the very top, and I do mean "nose bleed elevation top" of the development. It's about 1 mile "up" into the development and you climb 600' from the highway entrance to get there on lovely cobblestone streets (which I'd bet when wet are slicker than you know what). The place was OK, less than half what I'm paying here, but also considerably less than half the size and after driving the area twice I put the oxygen mask away and decided against it, the Jeep heaved a sigh of relief. I found another house out there, a bit more like this one, but it just didn't feel like "home".

So, after a few weeks of intensive search and driving, and still sulking over not getting the perfect house, I decided to punt - again - I'm good at that, I still have the storage area in TX that I have no idea what to do with except to keep paying on? I called or emailed owners and thanked them for their offers, but that I wouldn't be moving and sent an OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION to Margaret that her hovel is available again this winter should she choose to fly south from the great frozen North. So next year we'll do this again for real.

The quest was depressing and confirmed what I feared most - I stumbled into a perfect house for Max and me in many ways and now I can't find anything comparable, at least that we can afford? But, it was good in making me realize how really lucky we are to have this lovely place, warts and all, for another year. Now that we're staying I need to find something to paint or fix!