The Irony of Life, Part 35: Love/Hate Heber Springs

I moved to Heber Springs, AR in April 2020 because there were no rentals available in four states: Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas.  No one wanted to talk with me about their listings for rentals much less show them to me because of the COVID virus.  I live here now because a man I didn’t know, who was a friend on Facebook, said he would find me a place to live in Heber Springs.

That house was full of bugs like fleas and roaches, and ants.  Because I hadn’t lived with roaches for over forty years, I wanted to move again.  I bought a house and moved into it in October 2020.  I asked the previous owner if they had bug issues and they said they didn’t.  Even so, I got a contract with Hopper Pest Control so I wouldn’t have to deal with bugs.

I have finally adjusted to the climate here and that’s a good thing.  When I lived in the bug house, I found the Sulphur Creek Trail.  I could walk out my front door and walk to the trail which was a little more than a mile considering the blocks I had to walk to access it.

(My triplex in Durango, Colorado)

Over the past several years, I have mourned the loss of my triplex which I owned for 39 years, and the 44 years I lived in Durango.  Every day I walk the Sulpher Creek Trail, I practice gratitude and Ho’ oponopono to forgive myself for selling the triplex. On my drive to the trail from my house on Lakeshore Drive, (a ten-minute drive), I practice the Serenity Prayer.  A former student at the college where I was a professor gave me a card with that prayer that I have kept all these years and posted on my refrigerator door so I could remember what it was:

God, please grant me the courage to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

For those who read the previous post in The Irony of Life series, the rental in Durango did not go through.  I am now searching for rentals in Heber Springs because I cannot afford the ones in Durango.

There are things I like and things I hate about this small town where I will probably have to live for the rest of my life.  Because I like to end on a positive note, I’ll start with this:

Things I hate about Heber Springs:

• There are no organic grocery stores here and I have to drive 90 minutes each way to and from Little Rock which has several organic grocery stores. In Durango, there are three organic grocery stores, and one is bigger than the Walmart store here.
• There are only 100 days of sunshine here and that makes it difficult to sleep because it is the sun that helps to make melatonin that helps you sleep. In Durango, there are 300 days of sunshine.
• I have slept 3-5 hours a night since I moved here and not sleeping can cause a problem with memory. In Durango, I never had issues with sleep.
• The doctors (optometrists and ophthalmologists) have antique machines. I’m near-sighted and must have glasses to drive.  I went to two optometrists and two ophthalmologists to get my eyes tested for glasses which I do every two years.  The prescriptions I got from then were the exact Rx that I got in Durango in 2018. Durango doctors keep up with technology.
• There are no sidewalks to walk a mile or two so I have to go to a trail to walk. In Durango, I could walk two miles on sidewalks from my house to the Unity Church and back on sidewalks.
• The weather: it rains a lot here and I am accustomed to snow. In the 44 years in Durango, there were only two snow storms that prevented walking for maybe a day. And there are tornadoes here!
• State taxes for teachers: Arkansas allows a $6,000 deduction for state taxes; Colorado allows a $26,000 deduction for teachers.
• The only places you can buy clothing are Walmart and Beall’s. In Durango, there was a TJ Max, Ross, Gardenschwartz (hunting and camping), and other stores that I could walk to and from.  Here, I have to drive 40 minutes to Searcy for TJ Max or 1.5 hours to Little Rock for those kinds of stores. Ever since I went back on Greger’s Daily Dozen diet, I have gone from a size 14 to a size 8.  I need to buy clothes and my experience with Amazon clothes has not been good.

(Sulphur Creek Trail)

Things I love about Heber Springs:

• The trails here are fun to walk and I don’t get run over by cyclists as I did when I walked the Animas River Trail.
• The people here are kind and generous. For example, my realtor wants to go with me to see rentals and give his opinion.  I can’t say that is true in Durango.  And the man who built the house I bought has answered all my questions not only about the house but anything else on my mind.
• The vet doesn’t charge as much as the vets do in Durango.
• Driver’s License lasts 10 years, not 6 years as they do in Durango.
• Gasoline costs less here than it does in Durango.
• There are at least six consignment stores here and one splits a sale of your items 50-50. In my experience, Durango consignment stores do not split 50-50.
• They have condos here for elderly people (anyone over 60 years old) and assisted living. I’m not certain, but I think Durango has only one and it is on the highway to Farmington.

The world has changed dramatically since the advent of COVID, politics, and climate change.  Because I believe there is a God, I can only imagine that I am where I am supposed to be.  I guess I should quit whining and “accept what I cannot change.”

Till next time,

Please be kind to everyone you meet, for we all have our hidden sorrows. ~Tzaddi, aka Dr. Pam Young, PhD