The House on the Corner

This house doesn't live here anymore.

It was built in the late 1800s, and sat on the corner next to my apartment building (which you can see to the right) in the early part of the twentieth century. It burned to the ground, by arson, sometime in the 1960s.

Not visible in this photo, directly behind my apartment building, is this home's carriage house, which still exists and is now owned by me. I've been told by the city that it shouldn't exist. According to building codes, when a structure is destroyed or demolished, its outbuildings must also be removed. I'm not sure exactly why that didn't happen in this case, but I'm glad it didn't.

I got this photo from city hall, while doing some research on my building's history. I'm glad someone was paying attention. I've lived here 10 years, and this is the first time I've seen an image of the home that used to live on the corner.

gorgeous synchronicity....

I've read recently that synchronicity is the world asking you to pay attention. Or some aspect of yourself asking you to pay attention. I've looked for meanings in them, but there don't seem to be any, beyond "isn't it cool what life can do?"

So last month, my checkbook didn't balance. It was exactly $292 different than my bank statement. I had an odd sense of familiarity with the number, as if it were a number that had popped up more than once in my bookkeeping over the years, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I went through all the numbers again, and couldn't locate the culprit. I was getting frustrated, so I put it away, hoping I'd figure it out this month.

This month, of course, the glitch was still there, but I had an idea. I divided $292 by 2 and got $146. AHA! $146 is the monthly amount I pay on a long-term debt, and that explained the familiarity, as I have made an occassional double payment over the years. I scoured the previous month's register, and sure enough, there was an extra entry in my checkbook for the payment, and I'd accidentally checked them both without noticing.

But there was only 1 extra payment. How was this possible? I was still $146 off! I went over it and over it in my head and decided I had to re-do all the math for the month and see where it went awry. I found it almost by chance. It wasn't an addition problem so much as a copying error. There, near the end of the month, I had a line item that was $16.22, but in the totals column, where I do the math, I had misprinted it as 162.22.

The difference is $146.00!

I'm not sure why, but this weird little coincidence makes my heart beat quickly and excites me. If it is the world: "Hello!" If it is my subconscious: "Hello!" If it is some gorgeous choreography, conspired by the two of you: "Hello! Hello!"

In any case:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.