Austin is still booming. Although the boom has slowed a bit, the haste of many projects continues.

The house next to us is being thoroughly renovated and the other half of the lot is being prepared for a new home.  When I mentioned that it was bulk trash day for the neighborhood to the builder, he proceeded to put out on the curb all of the doors and wood trim that had been removed from the house – including some great solid wood doors with nice old doorknobs. Although the city says that a percentage of the bulk items it picks up are recycled, why couldn’t this guy have taken the time and expense to make sure that happened, by taking the items to Habitat for Humanity’s Re-store or putting an ad up on Craigslist? I rescued a couple of the doors myself, and then the city didn’t take the construction materials as part of policy.  Yet now those potentially reusable items are being rained upon.

This morning, I read on News 8 Austin’s site that some 200-year-old oak trees were “accidentally” cut down in Oak Hill over the weekend.  This is so tragic.  Apparently a subcontractor mistakenly cut down these trees to help in the preparation for a new apartment complex.  How could anyone possibly look at those trees and not think,  “Hey, maybe I should double-check to see if this is right” before cutting down some massive and probably incredibly beautiful trees???  Sheds some more light on what Oak Hill is getting itself into by advocating for more dense development out there (as discussed in my post from May 13th).

Yes, we all get caught up in the demands for fast and easy in our lives, but we all need to slow down and take the time to pay attention to what is going on … and stop the waste of haste.