Recent Days

Last weekend was prom night. Since all my children are past that, I don't pay much attention to it any more. However, last weekend, a neighbor whom we aren't necessarily close to, stopped in to ask if he could use our front garden as a backdrop for pictures of his daughter and her prom date. We said sure, but first he might want to look at the back yard before deciding where he wanted to pose his daughter. They did choose the back yard and have promised to soon be by to show us the pictures. I'd like to see them.

Then, this weekend, I invited my mother and step-father for dinner. Because of the heat, I made a spaghetti dinner which was totally enjoyed. During the meal, the conversation came up about the higher wages that certain folks make. Things always turn political with my step-father. He hasn't learned that there are two things you don't discuss -- politics and religion. Anyway, he asked a question worthy of some thought...

"What would you do with a yearly $900,000 salary?"

Would I move? No. I like this property. It's my dream. The house is small enough to easily take care of, the property is pretty because I made it that way. It's also easily affordable but would be paid off with that kind of money.

What I would do is take some of it salary annually and buy up property being sold by individuals or by developers who are going under with the extreme falling of the property values. I would take these vacant lands and turn them into nature preserves. I don't feel we need more housing. The baby boomers are beginning to die off and the next generations have an influx of housing to choose from. We don't need more housing. We've already stressed out the environment enough. What we need is to allow the environment to return itself.

Personally, seeing a lot of empty houses isn't all that nice. I want the birds and the bees and the wildlife. How does the song go? "You paved paradise and put up a parking lot." I'd like to change some of that and even though the amount I could do wouldn't see all that significant, it would be a drop in the bucket that wasn't there before. This would be my way of giving to future generations something they might otherwise miss; a nice stroll in the woods and see wildlife and plants they might otherwise miss.