Sunday, March 27, 2005
Won't you be my neighbor?
One of the neighbors just put her house up for sale at the start of this week. The asking price is reasonable, at least by Silicon Valley standards. The house is on a corner lot, and the landscaping was upgraded last year both in the front and back yards, so it is definitely one of the better homes for sale in the neighborhood. Given that today is Easter Sunday, there was quite a bit of buyer traffic, perhaps 1 or 2 lookers every hour.
This afternoon, I was out in front of my house doing yardwork. This has been a kind of guerilla warfare between me and Mother Nature for the past month, as it's been raining almost every weekend. Whenever it stopped raining for a day or two, I'd have to hurry and mow the lawn quickly before things got soaked again. Today I was determined to work fast and finish cleaning up before the rain arrived in mid-afternoon. The wind was whipping up fierce, blowing leaves everywhere and making the job harder than usual, and all of that was putting me in a foul mood.
But, I digress. While I was scooping up leaves and filling up the dumpster, this man surprised me when he came up behind me and asked if he could ask me a question. I was going to reply that he already did, but I stopped myself and just gave him the look, like just get out of here. He was mumbling something like he was looking at the house next door and wondering if he should buy it. I answered, somewhat curtly, that it was up to him, and I'm not a real estate agent, and he should go get himself one. He thanked me and walked away.
It was about a minute later when I realized what a jerk I had been; it wasn't his fault that the grass was wet and the leaves were blowing, and he was just asking an innocent question and there was no reason for me to get upset like that. I wanted to apologize to the nice man, but by that time he had already left. I hope he'll be back, and maybe even buy that house. It's a beautiful house and a good value, and the neighbors are nice, especially when they are not out gardening in bad weather.
- posted by Woofwoof @ 7:50 PM
