What kind of a moron buys property ONLINE?

I hold Jeff Bezos personally responsible! I love books, ran a bookstore, read every day and had the ability to buy books online -- why didn't I think of that. Every day there is an e-mail from Amazon. Look at this, see this, buy me... please. It is so easy and neat and natural. Books. Books. Cd's. More books. More Cd's. An occasional jar of stem ginger. So why not property? The pictures popped onto the screen like a biography of Duncan Grant or the latest tunes from Jolie Holland. So why not buy a house online. Why indeed?

Almost Heaven...

I had been thinking of leaving the big city, but I hadn't really given it much thought. Then one day I was surfing the net and I found an add offering me the chance to "step into the nostalgic era." Perhaps it was melancholy or malaise, the Towers coming down or my lone tomato coming up but I took that step. I called on Thursday, saw the property on Sunday and decided to take the step.

Well, actually, it was more of leap. A gigantic, nosediving free-fall into nostalgia.