MXM, Thanks for reading and your response. You are describing my neighborhood to a T. I can only stay here because I’m old like the hills and got in early. If I had to buy a house here now, I’d be outta luck. That’s weird, considering my husband and I bought the “get a college degree” line and we both have advanced degrees. One of those advanced degrees is in librarianship, though, which is not an easy field in which to make the big bucks.

Oh, and nothing is more soul-killing than a commute. What a silly world we live in.

Reading your comment it also struck me how close the words “effluent” and “affluent” are. For some reason that is making me laugh.