More News Next Door

Nope, this isn't another post about Ferguson, though there is a touch of the St. Louis neighborhood economic boundaries to it.

Years ago, and jobs ago, my boss was complaining about her "dump" of a house. I mentioned that not only did I live one street from her, my house was the same model as hers. Same bricks, same floor plan, and I thought "our" house was quite nice. She apologized a few hours later. A few months later she moved to an outrageously huge house in a fancy subdivision a mile away.

How fancy? The first Christmas she was dismayed that she had to buy all new Christmas lights when she found her new country club subdivision only allowed white Christmas decorations. (For the uniformity, not because they had a problem with Christmas lights of color.)

How is that news? Her new subdivision is the one in this article.

Some points:

1, Yes, I live a mile from a country club, but there was no country club when I built my house. The rich folks followed ME.

2, Half a million in my area is a lot to play for a house, especially in Weldon Spring, known radioactive dump site. Gary's biology class went to Weldon Spring to search out mutated frogs.

3. Friend #3 had a brown recluse infestation after she moved from her condo (three miles from me) into a "better" condo in a fancier part of town. Coincidence? Or God's bitey judgment? 

4. You can only die from a brown recluse spider bite if you die from the infection you get after the toxins eat a hole in your leg.  

5. No one on the internet seems to know if brown recluse spiders ever vacation to the smaller subdivisions in the area. I doubt they will, especially since a) they are clearly brought on by hubris and b) I think in St. Louis even the spiders are afraid of venturing from their fancy neighborhoods into ones with a lower economic status.

6. Gary got lost once on a walk in that country club subdivision, but came home unscathed by radioactive brown recluse spider bites.

7. After we heard about the spiders we would have gone for a walk and gawk, but there's a guard shack we'd have to get past.

8. I don't think this news story have been picked up by The Guardian or Facebook without the worlds "bleeding out of the walls."

Comments

[~~Silk]

Ex#2 was bitten on the calf when we lived in St. Louis, and didn't even notice until the hole was the size of his palm. St. Louis is loaded with the things, and if you don't have a house full of them, it's because
1. Your house is not damp, and
2. you don't have piles of laundry lying around, and
3. you vacuum everywhere at reasonable intervals, or
4. you're either lucky or blind.

[~~Silk]

Oh, yeah, one more thing - even spiders have to eat, so an infested house also has a lot of other spider-food bugs.

I am a little afraid of spiders; I'm convinced the freakin' things can read my mind. (Ever see a spider, and you think "I should swat that" and the spider turns and looks at you?) But I mostly don't kill spiders in my house because I figure they eat the ants, clothes moths, bed bugs, and mosquitoes.

[allison]

"Brought on by hubris" HA ha ha ha ha. We had a neighbour once who said something, not to the same degree, but along the same lines, intimating that he found his house way too small for him and his two daughters. I was with my neighbour (it went him, us, her), and we walked away and then immediately looked at each other like, WTF? His house is bigger than ours, and ours isn't huge but it's definitely not tiny. You should bribe the guard at the gate - he'd probably love to see some gawking.

[Hattie]

Oh the schadenfreude. Love it! Older houses are all the rage anyway. We have a rental in an old Portland neighborhood and practically every day we get letters from people begging us to sell them the house for cash.
No way. We're leaving it to the kids.

[Thequeen]

~~Silk- we don't kill most spiders. if it has hair, then it must doe, but the little white basement spiders can live,
Alison- You know, I would have just assumed that guy was some degree of hoarder. The trick with a small house is to give away what you don't use. He'll outgrow that bigger house too.
Hattie - Yeah, people keep wanting to buy Mom's house for cash, too. Pretty obvious sign it's a buyer's market. I can wait for a seller's market, thank you.