A while back I said that we had heard excavation going on at the rich, snooty neighbors’ across the road from us and we guessed that they were putting in an in-ground pool. We were wrong. Not long after I said that we saw a tornado shelter going in and now there are walls going up. They are building a house behind their existing house, which we’re assuming will be moved when the new one is finished. The new house is huge. It’s really going to say, “We’re rich and snooty” in grand fashion. Obviously I’m terribly envious.

Actually, I’m sure they’re nice enough people. I don’t have a problem with neighbors not being neighborly; I actually prefer it that way. The neighbors on either side of us stay to themselves most of the time too but I just get a different vibe from these people. Two things about the across-the-road neighbors seem to me definite signs of unfriendliness. One is that they never call off their dogs. They have several dogs that, as dogs will do, always bark at me whenever I go to the mailbox or even when I’m just walking around my own front yard. That’s normal dog behavior. Normal human behavior would be to at least try to make the dogs shut up. These neighbors never do. Maybe it’s just me but that really, seriously gets under my skin. It’s the little things. They also never say hello when we’re both outside. I don’t particularly care about that but people around here always say hello when they see you even if they don’t know you at all so it seems unfriendly when someone never, ever says hello or waves or even just give a little nod.

Anyway… I am interested to see what the house will look like when it’s finished. It will give me even more reason to be ashamed of our house and really glad that’s it’s only barely visible from the road but still, somehow, it makes me happy to see a big, new house going up. I guess because I’ve always been interested in houses. And soon the directions to our house will include the phrase, “right across from the mansion.”