Long Day's Journey Into Indiana

Dateline: in the loft at Nona's, Terre Haute IN, 9 April 2005

Up early and leave with my mother-in-law to meet our local realtor and start hunting for houses south and to the west of Indianapolis. I get to drive Nona's A4 Audi, a beautiful piece of red muscle that's 9 years old and has only 31k on it. Almost two years since I stopped driving the Audi GT Coupe she gave us during our first-born's cancer back in the mid-90s. Had that car until I bought my Pilot in 03, and liked it plenty, but it was 16 years old when I was done driving it, and I pretty much swore off sticks because they don't go well with cell phones.

Still, I did okay with it. Almost 20 years of driving sticks means it's a skill you don't forget any more than how to ride a bike.

So we drive to Greenwood just south of Indy and meet Gloria our local agent. Ten hours later we call it a day, after going into only one house, which we found really bad. Today was mostly about driving around and ruling out cities, which pretty much took care of everything west and south of Indy, except maybe for Columbus.

We knew these areas were probably the weakest, so it was an avowed process of elimination, but still it made for a depressing day--if informative. Also spent about three hours in Indy itself ruling out the nice but tight neighborhoods in the Meridian district.

Tomorrow will be more serious for two reasons: 1) we'll search the north and west, with the north offering the best chances; and 2) we reached an agreement to sell our house in Portsmouth today. Our counteroffer ended up being stingier than we had first thought, because our realtor in RI slept on it and decided we shouldn't compromise much at all, given the offer only 3 days into the market. To our delight, the buyer took our entire counter-offer, so we have a few basic inspections to go through (nothing to worry about, because we have the house checked out all the time--I'm just that kind of owner) and waiting on these people to secure the mortgage (something we expect with ease given the cash they're putting on table). So now we're really incentivized to find a place we want in Indiana, cause come 15 July, we no longer have a house in RI.

Trio of interesting pieces in the Times today on China:

1) "North Korea Said to Reject China's Bid on Nuclear Talks," by Joel Brinkley, p. A10.

2) "Made in China. Bought Everywhere: As Trade Surplus Balloons, So Does Talk of Protectionism," by Keith Bradsher and David Barboza, p. B1.

3) "U.S. Plans Talks With China," by NYT, p. A10. (also a much bigger story on this in Friday's Post).

So Kim blows off China's latest diplomacy. So now the 5 powers are said to be in new talks among themselves about what they're willing to do to deal with Pyongyang. "Informal talks" about "new, more aggressive strategies that could be used if and when it is decided that the talks have reached a dead end."

Hmmm. Perhaps the time for some real ultimatums!

So China is important to us militarily, methinks.

But China's huge trade deficit with the world can't be allowed to continue without someday soon getting Beijing to let the yuan float (and stop being artificially pegged to the dollar).

So China is important to us economically, methinks.

Hmmmmm. Maybe we should be have regular high-level talks with the Chinese on all such matters.

And Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick is an excellent choice to lead those talks.

China suggested having the talks last year. Rice worked out the final details when she visited China last month.

Tell me this isn't shaping up to be our most important strategic relationship in the 21st century.

And then tell me how it's wrong to reduce China's entire rise to its growing navy.

Big picture of the Middle Kingdom means we see the naval buildup within the context of everything else, yes?