songbird's crazy world

 Getting used to the new home  The furniture is right but the room is wrong ... The more things change … still greeting me from the kitchen window … (excuse the mess, we’re still unpacking…)

So we live in Levittown, the quintessential suburb, the prototype for the modern suburban community,  As I’ve mentioned before,  Bill Levitt and his company, Levitt & Sons, built this humongous community known as Levittown, and which extended into Hicksville and Wantagh.  The impetus for development was the housing shortage which occurred as former GI’s returned from WW II, married and started the Baby Boom. Each neighborhood built by Levitt had winding streets with bucolic names, and included parks, shopping centers and public pools. There were two model houses — the cape, which had 750 square feet of living space (kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a bath) and the slightly larger ranch — same number of rooms but with a whopping 800 square feet of living space.  Both models had a loft for future expansion.  Some later models included a carport or a garage.  Over the years, of course, people remodeled their homes.  Some added garages, others converted garages to additional livi

 Our new neighbor …

 I thought I was past it, but something popped up in my e-mail today … So, as you will recall, at the beginning of June Drew and I found a house that we thought was perfect. Advertised on Zillow, it was a decent sized house, nice layout, pretty yard …we put in our application, the broker said we qualified…but the landlord decided to look for “something better”.   Then the ad of Zillow showed a price cut.  Really?  After we found what is now our house, but before we moved in, I kept an eye on the various real estate sites, just in case the deal for this house fell through.    The broker re-posted the ad on Zillow, back to the original rent, the amount we would have paid.  Then I got an email from another real estate site, for a new listing.  Same house, different broker, rent higher  than what we agreed to pay.  The Zillow ad was gone.   Out of curiosity I drove past that house, and they’d done some cosmetic work on the exterior …nothing remarkable, nothing that justifies a substantial

 Another “your choice” week.  A rerun, of sorts … we revisit my favorite Rod Stewart songs … This is the first song of his that I ever heard. I was instantly in love. This next  song asks a question.  The answer, Rod, is “yes I do...” Then there’s “Hot Legs”.  When he sang it at Jones Beach in 2014 (that was a fun concert) he kicked a few beach balls out to the crowd. I love his cover of a Carole King classic. And we end with my favorite.   

 Thank you for your service, President Biden, and enjoy your well-earned retirement.