So yesterday was a lovely Purim. I got in my 10 miles, attended Eric and Dana's 6 pm Zoom, and then hosted ours at 7: Eric, Dana, and Kenny were on early, and then Kenny had to leave for a dinner. Josh came on, and we sang Happy Birthday to him -- he turns 23 on Tuesday. Later Barry joined, and Wifey and Donna made cameo appearances. We drank, and talked, for 2.5 hours. It was lovely.
Lili had baked us some hamantashon -- I fetched them Thursday night, and hid them from Wifey. I had one -- it was delicious -- Lili uses guava, in homage to her Cuban roots. Wifey had a guest, and I brought out the 3 remaining pastries for them. They got up to check something, and when they returned, the plate was empty. Vienna, our street mutt, got on the chair and table, and purloined the goodies. She felt SHE should celebrate Purim too, apparently.
Today I walked the 'hood, while catching up with Norma, my long ago secretary and friend. Sadly, her husband Raul died last month from pancreatic cancer -- a very tough year and a half battle. We talked of the old times, and the present -- she has 3 grandkids, and we have one. We met when we thought we were grown ups -- I was 27 and Norma 31. All of our kids are now older than that. My -- this time thing is weird.
I passed my neighbor Allison, and she told me the house next door had gone on the market. It seems like just a few years since our friend Diane sold it. It was 2012. The "new" people have lots of kids -- the Dad is my age, and has grown kids and a grandkid, but he married a woman who is 33. They have 5 little kids together, and feel the 6000 square foot house is too small.
They listed it for sale for $3M. Wow. I would tend to doubt it'll sell for that amount, but I guess I hope it does -- good for the property values for the rest of us.
Wifey said, with a sneer, "Well -- if someone wrote YOU a check for $3M, you'd sell, right?" Nah, I replied, mostly to annoy her. Where would we go?
I'm hoping maybe an executive with Victoria's Secret buys the place, with the understanding that they can use the lagoon-like pool for some photo shoots. I would NOT object to that -- even with the increased traffic such activity could bring. Matter of fact, I'd volunteer as a towel man. You have to be a good neighbor...
On the other end of the local price spectrum, a house down the street perpendicular to ours also was just listed. It was owned for years by a nice Japanese lady -- apparently she was a world known bonsai expert. She lived there with her failure to launch adult son -- he was always leaving in his pickup truck to go fishing.
They're asking just under $900K, and the pictures show it is a knockdown place -- looks worse inside than my old college apartment at the end of a semester -- where our parents got billed for "excessive filth."
I'm guessing a builder or developer will buy the 1/2 acre site to build a new place -- the house looks beyond any reasonable repair. Luckily -- it's far enough down the street that the construction noise I think is coming won't be a bother -- but it will for our friend Jose. Oh well -- neighbors...
Meanwhile, a lazy day looms, it seems. Tomorrow D1 and Joey and the Spoiled Spaniel and our beautiful grandson are coming over. D2, Jonathan, and the enormous puppy are game time decisions. It should be a grand Sunday -- and somehow, March will then be upon us.
I went into plague quarantine March 13 of last year. Hopefully the end is in sight.
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