More homes are for sale

With the ever-increasing hot temperatures now, I have to walk the dogs either early in the morning (and face morning traffic on the roads) or after sunset. This way the dogs' paws don't get burned by the hot asphalt. They love their walks, even if it's no longer in the canyon off-leash and instead around the neighborhood on-leash.

It's good for me, too, to stop and on occassion talk to neighbors I wouldn't normally talk to without the dogs around. I can admire or admonish (to myself, of course!) people's yards and their choice of landscape. And I get some exercise in, too.

This morning I talked to a young couple on a corner lot a block away from us. Last night during our walk I noticed they were moving out; a large Penske Moving truck was parked in their drive-way. This morning, seeing them both up and ready, I stopped to ask them where they were moving to.

"Upstate New York!" said the blond man.
Oh, New York I thought, what a beautiful state. Visions of the Finger Lakes region came to mind, a region Kevin and I spent a very wet Memorial Day weekend in 2001. The gently-rolling hills reminded me of central Germany.
"It's beautiful up there!" I replied. "What's bringing you to New York?"
"The Border Patrol."
Oh, again more admiration. "Well, you guys do great work"
"It's going to be a lot different there" the man went on, "and not quite so dangerous!"
They had traveled there before so I didn't bore them with my positive observations of New York. No doubt living in New York will be quite different than living in southern Arizona. Instead of speaking Spanish agents have to be familiar with French. And the weather there can be quite brutal at times, when the snow piles up and the temperature stays below freezing for weeks on end. The rusty full-sized pick-ups driving down the pot-holed streets of Watkins Glen also came to mind. The street salt thrown on the roads there during snowy/icy weather eats through the chassis of most American-made vehicles. Still, that part of America is so wildly rural that I can't see anyone having a bad time there.

Another house is now also for sale in my little neighborhood, a small manufatured home on .5 acres selling for a mere $84,000. The yard needs major work but the views of the mountains are spectacular. Where are all these people moving to?

The house across from us and one down, the same house that went on sale in mid-May, is now under contract. An older couple seem to be the new owners soon. That house is no bigger than ours, but the stucco wall around the property and the mature trees in the back yard certainly are plusses. I only hope they have nice pets, as another neighbor of ours has a black German Shephered Dog they allow to roam free in the neighborhood, and that puppy's been in our front yard digging around the flowers. That's enough to get me growling in anger.