[speaker001:] okay um tell me about where you live
[speaker002:] I live in uh Richardson area
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] just close to uh Richland College do you live in the area too
[speaker001:] yeah no I live in Houston
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] although I did live in Dallas for uh six years up until uh nineteen ninety and then I I moved to Houston
[speaker002:] hm um-hum
[speaker001:] but uh I uh had lived in Houston before and uh from nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty four and uh lived worked downtown
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and when I was transferred from Atlanta uh to Houston I I bought a condo in southwest Houston
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] no and I clocked it and it was only nine miles from the office and of course didn't think that would be bad uh but the only time I ever drove it was not during rush hour
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] so so after it was a rude awakening to me to find out what I faced every morning and every afternoon in Houston traffic because where I lived in Atlanta was I lived right on Peachtree um a mile and a half from the office
[speaker002:] oh uh-huh
[speaker001:] and so I wasn't accustomed to commuting and it nearly killed me so whenever I moved back to Houston I said I I declared that I would not live where I had to drive on the freeways so now I live
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] in really inner city and uh but it's only it takes me about ten minutes to get to the office and I love it
[speaker002:] um-hum well what kind of a a house is it now are you still in a condo
[speaker001:] well I'm in an apartment
[speaker002:] oh okay
[speaker001:] but uh it's just I don't know it's uh I mean most most of the people that I work with you know commute in anywhere from thirty to forty five minutes some of them an hour or more one way
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and you know I mean I've I've had a house before and I mean and it's nice but it's just not worth it to me to sit behind the wheel of a car for that long
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] I just I can't do it so
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] anyway I'm very I'm I'm pretty content for the time being where I am
[speaker002:] oh we um rent a duplex right now and it's only like a couple of miles from where I work it's a little bit further for my husband we used to both work at the same building at TI and it was only like two miles from the uh duplex
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] now he's moved but he's going against the flow of the traffic so it's not too bad of a commute it only takes him about fifteen minutes
[speaker001:] uh-huh that isn't that isn't bad really
[speaker002:] no he can get on the highway and he's going north whereas most of the people are like in Plano going south so he's you know in a good situation because the traffic is not as heavy in his direction but we've been looking for a house but the first consideration to us is location you know they keep building
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] further and further out and of course you can get more house for the money and stuff but you know to me I'm the same way that day to day commute I don't like
[speaker001:] right uh you know it's like I said I I mean I've even had people at the office ask me they say how do you justify paying the kind of money you pay for rent because I do pay a lot of money every month for rent I don't deny it but at the same time I said well you know let's think about it I said I drive um less than ten miles a day round-trip and they go you know they're jaws dropped and then and then they go and I spend way less than thirty minutes a day round-trip commuting and you know that doesn't that's regardless of the weather if it's raining it still doesn't take me any longer I mean sometimes whenever and you know how Houston is it's just so flat
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and we have these torrential downpours sometimes and people literally get you know traffic gets backed up with the wrecks and everything and it'll take them an hour and a half to get to work
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and they're just frayed by the time they get there I think no way so
[speaker002:] yeah and I think too now we both have little bit older cars I mean both our cars are over ten years old now if you get a house if you buy a house more for your money further out you're gonna have to have a pretty decent car and put a lot into uh your car payments and your gas and stuff
[speaker001:] that's right
[speaker002:] I mean you know if you've got to drive it sixty miles a day you're gonna go through that car a heck of a lot faster than what we did I mean that's not something people think about is the car the car payments and the gas
[speaker001:] oh I agree with you a hundred percent since I'm um moved got this place I mean I used to I can remember years ago when I worked especially whenever I lived in Houston before I used to put twenty thousand miles a year on my car
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] last year I put less than twelve on my car
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] you know and you you can really tell a difference I mean I just don't you know it's just not
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I don't have that expense and by the time I cut down the the cost of my insurance because my car insurance is a little bit less by living so close then the additional automobile expense
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I don't know it's I I thought about it it's I mean I would like to own again I've owned in the past but I don't know I'm I'm hesitant to give up the convenience
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] plus where I live is so well managed I mean if I have any little thing go wrong I just pick up the phone at the office I call my manager I said we got this problem I come home in the afternoon there's a note on my dining room table saying we've been in we fixed it let us know if there's a problem you know I love it I'll be honest with you hey it
[speaker002:] um-hum