Monday, August 07, 2006

Palm Springs Life



The most beautiful time of day in Palm Springs is at dawn...



...as the sun slowly illuminates the San Jacinto mountains to the west of town...



...making the entire place look as if it's being lit for a Terrence Malick movie.



The reason for a visit in August was to look at real estate, a subject that has always bored the heck out of me while obsessing most of my California contemporaries.



This in turn was because my Domestic Partner was being forced by the odd tax laws of this country to invest money in something/anything after the sale of a house in San Francisco's Mission District.



The cause of that sale was the death without a will of his ex-lover three years ago, which plunged my partner into a three-year maze of funeral arrangements, probate court, Michigan in-laws, a tenant with either AIDS dementia or a carefully tended facsimile of same, and a volatile real estate market that was looking ready to crash at any minute.



A couple of weeks ago, everything was finally settled, and since buying anything in San Francisco was prohibitively expensive, we looked elsewhere for a place to put his small stash.



The Central Coast area around San Luis Obispo was considered, but that also turned out to be insanely pricey, and after a week around my parents and siblings there, I remembered once again why I'd fled from family at as early an age as possible.



So, like seemingly every other gay person of a certain age in San Francisco, we decided to check out buying a Palm Springs condo, most of which are fairly depressing.



However, unexpectedly, we scored.



In the fanciest part of "Historic Old Palm Springs," a block from the Palm Springs Tennis Club and the San Jacinto mountains...



...we were taken by a retired San Francisco real estate dude, Forrest Ryon, to a small, beautiful complex with good vibes where there was a listing for a fairly inexpensive one-bedroom place.



The offer was made, accepted, and a question was asked by the sellers.



They had already rented the place out for January, February and March to snowbird tenants who visited every year.



They were charging a monthly rent of [insert outrageous sum here], and wondered if the arrangement could continue.



"Uh, yeah," we replied before jumping up and down in happiness.



In an earlier post, I wrote rude things about San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty and referred to myself as a "non-A-Gay." One of my commenters, Albglinka (click here for his blog), wrote "And I always thought you were an A-Gay!" Gosh, I now may be guilty as charged.

10 comments:

M. C- said...

see you at the white party

Anonymous said...

Mike, how wonderful. It sounds great and tres elegant. May you enjoy it all mightily.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on finding the place in Palm Springs. It's beautiful, and didn't seem like a tortuous process at all. Wonderful!

Trevor Murphy said...

And 10 points for the completely appropriate Terrence Malick reference!

Kimo C said...

I am so pleased how this worked out for you two!

sfwillie said...

Don't worry, Mike, you'll never be an A-gay. You're not that stupid. Even I'm not THAT stupid.

AlbGlinka said...

ROFL... and I'm sure you now have a whole new season's worth of square-cut spandex speedos to show off...

Your D-Gay pal, AlbGlinka

janinsanfran said...

A few years ago we visited a straight, retiree relative who lives down there in a gated golfing community. Your new neighbors. :-) We borrowed a golf cart, drove to the end of the reservation, hopped a fence, climbed a hillock, and caught a glimpse of this.

Strange place.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to both of you...glad the saga has reached its fruition for you both.

Matthew Bamberg said...

Welcome to Palm Springs. I'm Matt and I live here. If you ever need help with photography try my book, Digital Art Photography for Dummies. Hope to see you when I sign at the Peppertree Books on March 1 at the Thursday street fair.

I've also started a new blog, Palm Springs Daily Photo.

Have fun when you're here.
http://digitalartphotographyfordummies.blogspot.com
http://palmspringsdailyphoto.blogspot.com