Our neighbor 2 doors down died this week of complications from the flu. She was only 47 and leaves behind a 5 year old daughter.
We didn't have much more than a nodding acquaintance with her. She had major issues with her homebuilder, much of it her own doing. She'd frequently ask My Beloved, who is also in construction for advice which made for an uncomfortable situation. My Beloved has a friendly relationship with the builder (who also built our house) and her sympathies were pretty much on his side. She didn't want to act as an intermediary between the two of them. I couldn't blame her , some of what was being asked of her pushed the boundaries a little to far.
Said neighbor was a trust fund hippie , with a view of money (and life in general) that was not grounded in reality. She also had some work experience as a paralegal and in her case a little knowledge was indeed a dangerous thing. She didn't believe in the old quotation of "Only a fool would hire himself as a lawyer"
The cardinal rule in construction is "Don't Piss of Your Builder" - he has ways of paying you back that you can never imagine. Especially in Texas, where all laws are squarely on the side on the builder. Texas is not known for being on the forefront of consumer or tenant rights.
So, we really never became friends. I always had a nagging bit of guilt about that. Having a greater tolerance for the more bizarre members of the human race than My Beloved I thought she was very interesting in a 1960s throwback sort of way.
And now she's gone. I'm a series of conflicted emotions. Can't honestly say that I'll miss her, since I never really knew her. I guess it's a combination of regret for what might of been, coupled with sadness for her daughter who lost her mother at much to early an age.
It's a strange feeling to realize that the house will go on the market again and someone will begin a new life in it.
We didn't have much more than a nodding acquaintance with her. She had major issues with her homebuilder, much of it her own doing. She'd frequently ask My Beloved, who is also in construction for advice which made for an uncomfortable situation. My Beloved has a friendly relationship with the builder (who also built our house) and her sympathies were pretty much on his side. She didn't want to act as an intermediary between the two of them. I couldn't blame her , some of what was being asked of her pushed the boundaries a little to far.
Said neighbor was a trust fund hippie , with a view of money (and life in general) that was not grounded in reality. She also had some work experience as a paralegal and in her case a little knowledge was indeed a dangerous thing. She didn't believe in the old quotation of "Only a fool would hire himself as a lawyer"
The cardinal rule in construction is "Don't Piss of Your Builder" - he has ways of paying you back that you can never imagine. Especially in Texas, where all laws are squarely on the side on the builder. Texas is not known for being on the forefront of consumer or tenant rights.
So, we really never became friends. I always had a nagging bit of guilt about that. Having a greater tolerance for the more bizarre members of the human race than My Beloved I thought she was very interesting in a 1960s throwback sort of way.
And now she's gone. I'm a series of conflicted emotions. Can't honestly say that I'll miss her, since I never really knew her. I guess it's a combination of regret for what might of been, coupled with sadness for her daughter who lost her mother at much to early an age.
It's a strange feeling to realize that the house will go on the market again and someone will begin a new life in it.
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