23 Days Before We Head to Wisconsin

Yesterday, as I walked to the mailbox to get our mail, it struck me that all the landscaping in our neighborhood looks pretty much the same. Everyone has three or four large boulders accenting mounds (more then one person has commented that the boulders look like headstones marking various gravesites), and every other person has a fake dry stream bed lined either with river rock or smaller boulders. Everyone has two trees placed in almost identical areas in the front yard. Everyone's landscaping looks pretty much the same. I miss the variety. Oh, there's the occasional weed but...

When we bought into this neighborhood, we knew what to expect. We knew that the landscaping in the front of the house came with the house. We could choose from five different plans and we didn't want the one with the grass. Not many who move here want grass...unless they don't know any better (these people usually just moved here for the first time from cooler climates...wait...they'll learn). We do live in a desert.

Most of the neighbors put the "variety" in their backyards. That's what we plan to do...when we get back here in the fall. But this doesn't make the walk to the mailbox any more interesting since you really can't view people's backyards without drawing suspicion. I do notice that the year-rounders have put out annual flowering plants in HOA approved pots. Most of the "snowbirds" have already flown back to cooler climates. I'll be joining them as soon as possible.

There aren't too many year-rounders here in this neighborhood. That's why we moved here. The HOA seems to understand the fact that most of the people here are not year-rounders. We still have to make sure that there aren't any weeds growing in our gravel and that all the plants look nice even while we're gone but the HOA is a bit more understanding. I'm told that they'll send the "warnings" to Wisconsin and I haven't seen any evidence of the fanaticism that I saw in my last neighborhood. I'm not expecting complaints if one weed shows up in my gravel...not that there will be any weeds in my gravel. Of course, I just moved here. I'll let you know if the HOA proves to be understanding or not after this first summer.

Our salesman stopped by yesterday to give us a beautiful coffee table book. HTP was thrilled to see another book in this house. I think that we're going to let #1 son take it to school with him. It might be nice to look at beautiful pictures of the desert southwest during the long cold months of winter in Minnesota. We really don't need another book here in Arizona. I can't even unpack the books that I do have until #1 son moves out of my guest room.

Murphyism of the Day

Commoner's Law of Ecology

Nothing ever goes away.

Pudder's Law

Anything that begins well, ends badly.
Anything that begins badly, ends worse.

Stockmayer's Theorem

If it looks easy, it's tough.
If it looks tough, it's damn well impossible.

Today's Little Bit of Trivia

An ex-con who violated his parole glued himself to his girlfriend so the police couldn't arrest him. An Algerian woman tried the same trick with her husband to keep him from being deported. Neither attempt was successful.