Copycatting & Gifting

[cafe]

I'm copycatting Dana's idea. These are a couple of pictures of my street. Didn't actually go for a walk because of the rain and lightning, though.

My home town is on the southern fringe of the rust belt and it has been declining since the seventies. I think we are going to be pretty safe from the housing bubble because houses here never really bubbled. We already had a pretty bad foreclosure rate, though, and I imagine that will only get worse.

Now our neighborhood isn't much and since they moved the school district around, it'll probably only get worse, but it's not too bad. There are a lot of retired people and empty nesters and it's changing into more of a blue collar neighborhood as the older people die or move to nursing homes.

It's still mostly owner occupied at this point and the little old ladies that walk their dogs every day were pleased to know that we were buyers, not renters when we moved in. I'm not sure they feel the same way now since we are pretty sucky on yard work, but we do keep the grass cut and don't leave trash in the yard (except fot the pieces of rusty chain link fence a neighbor gave us that we aren't quite sure what to do with ).

It probably sounds silly, but when we were renting the last house we lived in and we didn't have a running vehicle, I would pray to move into this neighborhood when I rode through it on the bus. It seemed just right to me. Nice, but not snooty. The yards were decent-sized and there's a park near by.

We've been here almost two years and I love it. I know we need to do better with the yard, but it feels like the place for us. Barring horrific disaster or incredible good fortune, we will stay here until we are too old to live on our own or we die. There goes my morbid streak again. I'm happy about it, really. I've moved enough for a lifetime.

Gifting
The selling stuff on Amazon thing has really opened up gift-giving to me and I'm loving it. I've been sending birthday gifts to family members whom we haven't bought a gift for in years. It is fun like being Santa or something.

Don's birthday is in Mid-April so I nagged him to update his wish list today and he humored me. I looked at it and realized that I am in big trouble-- he has seven books on his wish list that I want to read, too. Now I am going to be tempted to be selfish and buy the ones I like. That would not be very nice, even if I let him read them first. This is going to take some self-control. He has pretty good taste in books and he has broadened my literary horizons. Though I'm not sure if techno-thrillers and that kind of thing are very broadening.

 

[FFF]

If you're married to an INTP, he probably hardly even realizes the yard exists unless you point it out to him. Out of sight, out of mind, and even when it should be in his site, he probably doesn't see it cause he's thinking about something else.

 

[cafe]

He notices when the grass gets high, but that's about it. If I want anything done beyond that I have to 1.) catch him on a weekend when he's feeling chipper 2.) pay someone to do it 3.) do it myself.

I don't mind that though, because he works a lot of hours and he works hard, so I know he's tired and the last thing he feels like doing is messing around outside. He pretty much hates the outside.

 

[JAVO]

Grass is illogical and inefficient.

 

[cafe]

Heh. It also makes him break out in a rash and it's not even a joke. He's allergic to the darn stuff.

 

[FFF]

You're right JAVO. We should just rip up our lawns and replace them with plastic grass instead. Whatever company is working on genetically modified grass that stays short needs to hurry up and release it.