Yes, the delayed escrow of 16 days was nerve-rattling, especially since we’d already moved. But the circumstances of our home sale were, especially considering the current real estate situation, quite extraordinary.

We had been thinking about selling when, out of the blue, a real estate agent approached us, saying he had a client who loved our house and would we consider selling.? We said yes, and the house sold for more than we paid for it 16 months ago, as the part of Connecticut we were in still has prices rising slightly. Contrast that with the house we sold in Los Angeles 16 months ago. It has dropped 30% in value since then.

Will prices keep rising in Connecticut? I doubt it. True, it’s a prosperous state, even if now the middle and upper middle class are getting squeezed too. But the real estate malaise that is affecting much of the country can not help but hit Connecticut, especially when you factor in the nose bleed property tax rates (at least double that of California) and the exorbitant price of electricity and skyrocketing heating oil prices. We just paid $3.69 a gallon for heating oil on May 5. Last year the price was $1.95 a gallon. Ouch. Many people flat couldn’t afford it and kept their thermostats at 55 degrees all winter.

California is of course getting whacked by the real estate slump, which is affecting revenues adversely at the local, country, and state level. We are renting now, and have a good chunk of money in the bank to tide us through any bad times.

Many are not so lucky. I have friends who have lost homes. You probably do too. Others, who never could afford a home at all, may be getting crushed by credit card debt.

During those 16 days when we didn’t know if the house would actually be sold, and if it didn’t, we would have a serious scramble to make ends meet until it did, I got a taste of what millions go through every day - wondering how the bills will ever get paid.

We really need a saner economic system. One that doesn’t crush people.

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested the tiny Smartfortwo for crash safety.

[The Smartfortwo] earned the top rating of good for front and side crash protection. Its seat/head restraints earned the second highest rating of acceptable for protection against whiplash in rear impacts.

Larger cars are always safer than smaller cars

But among the smallest cars, the engineers of the Smart did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a very small package.

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Sgt. Matthis Chiroux, who served in the Army until being honorably discharged last summer after over four years of service in Afghanistan, Japan, Europe and the Phillipines, today publicly announced his intention to refuse orders to deploy to Iraq.

He says

This occupation is unconstitutional and illegal and I hereby lawfully refuse to participate as I will surely be a party to war crimes. Furthermore, deployment in support of illegal war violates all of my core values as a human being, but in keeping with those values, I choose to remain in the United States to defend myself from charges brought by the Army if they so wish to pursue them. I refuse to participate in the occupation of Iraq.

Chiroux deserves our full support for his courageous and principled opposition to an illegal and unjust war.

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The escrow closed 16 days late, but it has indeed finally closed. Our house in CT has been sold. We’ve moved into our apartment near San Francisco now. Starting in July, Sue will walk across the street to the BART station and travel to Golden Gate University downtown to get a Masters in Taxation.

To say my nerves were frazzled during the seemingly endless 16 days would be an understatement. However, all’s well that ends well.

Sue and I look forward to discovering SF and meeting lots of new friends here.

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The worst of the “credit crisis” might be over, but the real effects of tighter lending, less capital spending, rising unemployment, and consumer defaults on credit cards and auto loans is just starting.

By this viewpoint, the apparent slowing of the bad news lately is just a lull, not an ending, with more (but different!) crises coming.

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The Wall Street Journal reports that new-generation nuclear power plants are going to end up costing quite a bit more than estimates. Not just a few percents, but double to quadruple, or $5 billion to $12 billion a plant.

So what’s to keep the costs from doubling again, and why were previous estimates unrealistically low?

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