These are the People In My Neighborhood

Thanks to the Big Purple House, we've added a whole new assortment of acquaintances. First, there is the previous owner -- she was a stripper. The carpenters she stiffed on redoing the kitchen and whose tools she stole? -- they are identical twins, country musicians and excellent cabinet builders and carpenters. Thanks to the previous owner, we've had our first ever encounter with a repo-man. The neighbor across the street is a French interior decorator specializing in faux painting and fancy plasterwork. The guy who does most of the lawn care in the neighborhood and who we got to help us clear the jungle goes by the sole name of Junior. We got Crazy Billy to cut down our tree, and made another neighbor mad in the process.

We're sorry to be leaving the neighborhood we live in now, but we sure will have more interesting stories to tell about the people who came into our lives thanks to the Big Purple House.

About That Tree

As I mentioned below, we had to take down a very large, very rotten tree. It wasn't a particularly nice tree -- just a hackberry, but it was huge. We got the best price on taking it down from a guy known to some as "Crazy Billy."

Crazy Billy might not be what you'd call an educated man and looking at him just might make you think of Deliverance, but he knows trees and he knows how to cut them down safely.

So Crazy Billy and his guys were roping up and cutting the large limbs off the giant hackberry when one of our neighbors to be came running up, demanding they stop immediately and come down. Apparently the neighbor started demanding their license and taking photos of their trucks to document what was going on and when words were exchanged, they went inside and complained to our carpenters about the incident.

Then the neighbors called Justin, saying that it was a "historic" tree and would irreparably change the skyline. They wanted to know who diagnosed that the tree was rotten and noted that "the tree guys didn't seem very educated."

We hate to make enemies with neighbors we haven't even met yet. The other three neighbors we've met have all been extremely nice and neighborly. At least this couple doesn't live right next door. Of course, since they aren't even right next door, one wonders even more at their extreme concern over our tree.

We took pictures of the rot just in case we ever hear any more about it. But I'd rather have angry neighbors than a rotten tree in a yard I hope to let my kids run around.