I Want Her to Be Resting Peacefully, But I Also Kind of Want Her to Haunt Them

they're smashing down all the tiny houses around my house and building these giant monstrosities. that's not a nice word, probably, some call them 'bigfoots' for the big footprints they have, on those same tiny lots. it has the effect of the fat-guy-in-a-little-suit, with the front porch spilling over the sidewalk and the backyard....not being. when they start these projects, the first thing they do is come in and tear down all the trees in the yard which gets me all Lorax-y. welcome to the neighborhood, asshats. 

we're the new-old 'it' town and people with dollar-dollar-bills-y'all are moving in. it's cool because it raises the value of our wee house, but it's terribly not cool because it's loud and there are all these dudes prowling around my backyard-adjacent and pounding loudly outside the bedrooms of the children who do not want to nap. and also, in about 6 months, we're going to be that house from the movie 'Up,' small and sandwiched between skyscrapers. and i am FOR SURE going to be the crabby old man refusing to change and suspicious of any person on his porch. herumph. 

this fall we lost the beautiful maroon-haired Ms. Betty, our next door neighbor of 10+ years. she had lived in that tiny one-floored house for 60+ years. she took really good care of it, and pretty darn good care of herself. she lived alone for the past decade. except for her cats, whom she was always sarcastically trying to give away. there's a little rickety garage behind her house, which is also currently being torn down. she kept her boat car in it, driving it only to the beauty shop and the doctor(s). many doctors near the end. 

in the last years of her life, she lost her best friend and brother, who played cards with her every day and sometimes took her eat at this local diner with a questionable wagon theme and meals for $3.99, and also her granddaughter and was losing her son when she died. she didn't like that she was breeching the natural order of things. she didn't like it at all. 

anyway. she's gone and every time i see them tearing off a piece of siding, i wince for her. the house was small and well-built and suited her family's needs. and now it's going to be replaced by something huge and likely cheaply built and wasteful. 

i'm also a little jealous. we kiboshed the renovation on our own little bungalow a few years ago and are just embracing our little house pretty much as-is for now. the projected plans weren't going to be huge, but it was going to be a pretty good upgrade in size and shiny-ness. i dream of doing snow angels on the floor of my kitchen without smacking the walls (#itissmall) and there were some pretty sophisticated designs happening elsewehre, too. BUT we want to make sure we're being mindful in what we need/want/can afford/should afford. 

grownupping is for the birds.  

but also, since i'm standing on principle on my house i can reign down righteous indignation on the West Eggers moving in around me. 

herumph again for good measure.