tuesday

We-Ping and boyfriend are in my bed sleeping. Mr. Bojangles is sitting next to the computer and looking at me. Some of the time he bats at my fingers as I type, or climbs to my shoulder and purrs in my ear.
Daughter is still upstairs sleeping.
The house is quiet.
I like it.

The house next door is empty.
For many years Joe lived there..........so did his wife.  He'd been retired for 30 years, and had been employed at his retirement job for 30 years when we moved in next door.. He was a nice man.
He liked my daughter Emily.
Whenever we'd pull up to our house and get out of the car, Joe would yell "Emily!" He did it every single time..........and Em would yell back "Joe!" I thought it was sweet. And when Em and I would be in the backyard, Joe would stand at the back gate on his side, Emily at our side, and they would jibber jabber to each other.
His wife died a few years after we moved him.
He seemed to rebound pretty quickly. But who knows for sure.
We always made him Easter baskets, Christmas cookies, and a plate at Thanksgiving. And some of the time, Emm would sit with him on the porch( under my watchful eye)  and they'd quietly watch the neighborhood.

At some point his family placed him in a nursing home.
The house must have been in his sons name because his son sold the house
to Joe's grandson for a little less than 1/3 the value of the home. He practically gave him the house.
The grandson, his wife, and little girl moved in............they tore off the side deck in preperation for the
the new driveway he was going to put in...........tore down a wall to make room for a pool, throwing all the rock in the stairway leading to the garage back door.......totally filling the stairway making the door inaccessible.............they received a load of gravel for God knows what, had it piled against my gate their side of the gate and there it has sat for 5 years..................he refused to hold down a job. Always going from this job to that one..........with long periods of unemployment in between. So he refinanced his house over and over again to live off the equity. She sat in the house all day. Also refusing to work.  They never did put in a new driveway or pool. So their kitchen door opens at 2nd floor level to nothingness but a really bad fall if you step out the door.
They owe more on the house than what it's worth, and they've left it in disarray.
The city/bank held an auction in March. It didn't sell.
The grass is at least 2 feet feet deep, and weeds are taking over. (I've called code enforcement)
Joe would be pissed. That was his home. He took pride in it.

How do you manage to piss away a house that has been given to you?!