The power went out today at the homestead. The two electric clocks were found to have stopped. What was frightening was that a surge suppressor had “sacrificed itself,” as some of the manufacturers say, to save some equipment. This is becoming a regular part of life in the nabe, with all the demolition, remodeling, and new construction going on. I’m going to start leaving everything that’s important unplugged. Last night, when doing tidywork to make this ranch look a little more presentable before the arrival of seasonal visitors, I found among the Neat Heaps on the desk a stack of the cards that real-estate brokers leave inside the screen door, with scrawls on them saying that they have buyers for the house and to please, please call. I even found some personally addressed letters. Here’s the text of one: “I am interested in purchasing your property located at [xxx], if you are willing to sell. I would like to offer you $[xxx,xxx] for the property. You would avoid the 6% commission normally associated with selling a property if you sell it to me. If you are interested then please give me a call at (512)[xxx-xxxx]. Please consider my offer. Thank you.” After months and months of filth and noise and every kind of inconvenience from before sunrise to after sunset, seven days a week, especially with skyrocketing appraisals and resulting jumps in the tax bill, selling up and lighting out for the territory seem just the tinest bit alluring on days like these.