not yet, but soon

Maybe the next place I live will not hide a tiny interdimensional portal. You cannot imagine the advantages of this set-up, from an ant colony’s point of view. Who cares if the house has been laced--foundation and yard--with anti-ant substances? Your workers materialize in the 2x4 framing, completely bypassing the dangers of ordinary entrance, march to their little heart-tube’s content toward the Terro, and shlurp it up by the thorax-load. As for the boric-acid content? No problem. Something about interdimensional travel, apparently, totally neutralizes acid. It’s a neat arrangement. I wouldn’t have believed it until I saw it.

I will not tell prospective buyers that the house contains such a wormhole, anymore than I will tell them about the little girl ghost in the basement. (She doesn’t bother me nearly as much as the ants anyway.) I’m simply hoping I can find ways of keeping the woodwork from disintegrating between now and when an appropriate time to divest myself of home ownership arrives.

There is a question of where I will put people. That, and the economy, will keep me in place for now. Some people in similar situations realize that they’re old enough to take advantage of senior housing options. But I will not realize this, since I am not.

But it is, chronology notwithstanding, clear as Terro liquid ant bait that I do not have the temperament for house ownership. I had the temperament when I wasn’t doing it alone, because relationships are like that, in a chemical equation-ish way. You can be one thing as a free-standing human ion, and something quite different, with surprisingly unexpected properties, when you become part of a relational molecule. Then, (splish), someone pours on the solvent and you realize that the personality characteristics you thought were yours were not--they were, in fact, properties of JfEm, which is a rather stable, sane type of substrate, capable of supporting many types of life, whereas the free-floating Em+ is a somewhat cranky ethereal ion which is disinclined to bond with many other elements, and tends to try to osmose through whatever container you put it in.

Hence, I will not have a house. I am too troubled by being personally responsible for a building, but--note this kids--I will try to have a little extra space for comers and goers. Not sure what/where yet. Stay tuned. Well, no actually, don’t stay tuned...it’s going to be quite a while, but at least be forewarned.