Muckraking.

So the contractors started work on Monday. We're putting an addition on the front of our house--just a little one to add an office downstairs so we can move E into a new bedroom (where the office currently is). In normal times, we probably would have put this house on the market and moved into a slightly bigger one. But with a housing market that looks something like Yahoo's stock price in the late 90s (indeed, our own home has tripled in value--problem is, so has everyone else's), we couldn't afford to move. But, we could afford a refinance and a larger loan to pay for an addition.

So now it's the Marianas Trench in the front yard, as the holes for the foundation have been dug but the cement hasn't yet been poured. A huge pile of red clay sits in the yard and our assigned parking spot. Naturally, all of September was drought conditions, but with the coming of October things have gotten just wet enough to make the clay into extremely sticky mud.

In fact, our walkway, which we share with the townhouse to our right, was covered in the mud and crap, and tracking everywhere. Fortunately, our contractors hosed away the mud, leaving a sparkling clean sidewalk instead, and avoiding a potential neighbor land mine.

But, naturally, you can't please all the people all the time, and another neighbor complained to me this morning (in no uncertain terms) about the runoff from the hosing down, which had accumulated in the parking lot. Admittedly it was ugly, but it wasn't anything but dirty puddles, rather like what we tend to get after a heavy rain. She said it was probably illegal.

Which makes me wonder: if there had been a downpour, would she have arrested the clouds?