Showing off the neighborhood
If you live in the Permian Basin and watch TV, you've undoubtedly seen the ads for Woodland Park with the crawler announcing the "open house" this Saturday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. It's open to the public (of course) and there will be free hot dogs and drinks, plus all the builders will have model homes open for touring.
Here's an aerial view of the development taken last Sunday afternoon; click the image to see a larger version. If you're having trouble getting your bearings, that's A Street roughly bisecting the photo from left to right; a portion of the polo field is in the lower right corner, and Midland Country Club is near the top on the right. Our house is in the lower left portion of the development. If you look closely, you can see MLB working in the yard, wearing a halter top and hot pants. I'm not sure why she insists on doing that, but the neighbors haven't complained*.
I'm all for this, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it's provided motivation for the developers to clear the vacant lots of the randomly scattered piles of construction material, pick up the litter along the roadways and around the common areas, and mow the weeds everywhere.
I was considering retrieving my sailboard from storage and putting on an exhibition during the afternoon, but after seeing the main pond from the air, I think I'll pass. The whole thing looks way too much like a human digestive tract to me, and I'm pretty sure that circle thing floating in it was featured in a Sci-Fi Channel movie last month.
OK, that's really just moss. The hot weather combined with the runoff of nutrients from all the new plants makes the stuff literally explode; it's a real challenge to keep it under control. This shouldn't be so much of a problem in the future (he said without a real sense of enthusiasm).
If you're in the market for a new home, or just curious about what's going on out at the end of A Street, stop by on Saturday.
*You cannot even begin to imagine the trouble I'm now in.
Heh. I guess I lost my train of thought (or something).
My self-inflicted wounds keep getting worse.
Posted by: Eric at June 24, 2008 06:36 PMI'm in Denver. When MLH reads your blog, you're probably going to wish she was in Denver, as well. Heh.
Posted by: Janie at June 25, 2008 07:20 AMJanie, since I don't know if "MLH" is a typo or intentional, I have no idea how I should interpret that remark, if you know what I mean. ;-)
Posted by: Eric at June 25, 2008 08:15 AMLake Michigan makes the Woodland Park Lake look like Midland! And I had the exact same thought that Kyle did about your "train of thought" (sorry, Kyle)
We're off to the Cubs game tonight...hope we don't get rained out!
Toni, I'll bet if you got enough altitude above Lake Michigan, it would look exactly like Lake WP. Well, except perhaps for the odd circle of unidentified material floating in it. (For Lake Michigan, it would probably be dead union bosses and abandoned Hummers.)
Enjoy the Cubs game; I didn't know they were playing football this early in the summer. ;-)
We're eating at the Cancun Grill tonight, so there. And I'm paying!
Posted by: Eric at June 25, 2008 03:00 PMNice to see the new place now that I can't visualise you blogging from your old house now hehe.
Posted by: Rachel at June 25, 2008 04:23 PMRachel, go ahead and visualize the old place; my ghost is probably still there, harassing the baby squirrels. ;-)
Posted by: Eric at June 25, 2008 05:21 PMWhere exactly are the "woods"??
Posted by: Wallace at June 27, 2008 12:05 AMWho said anything about woods? It's "Woodland," not "Wooded." That simply means that there is land (aka, dirt), and the presence of wood (aka, building scraps, mesquite mulch, etc.). Don't try to build a forest where there are no trees. ;-)
Posted by: Eric at June 27, 2008 09:41 AMOh, ok, it's coming together for me now. North is on the left, and that's 349 up at the top of the picture. I guess I should stay on the ground so I don't get lost.
A creek out here in the desert? Who knew? Good thing there's no water rationing out here.
I suppose the homeowners' group will be taking over the stream and pond maintenance at some point, and I hope you will keep us posted about that.
Posted by: Geo at July 1, 2008 09:26 PMI just had to see it for myself. Drove out there this morning, and sure enough, there's a very nice looking creek feeding into the pond, or more likely, cycling pond water out and back into the pond. Do the pumps run day and night?
On my way there I saw a weird looking guy riding a rather strange bike towards town on "A." There goes the neighborhood.
Posted by: Geo at July 2, 2008 01:09 PMYes, the pump runs continuously. The water bubbles up and into a "wetlands filter" of gravel and various water plants which is supposed to keep the nutrients at a reasonable level (although it hasn't been able to keep up thus far, if you noticed the proliferation of moss in the stream).
The north pond is self-contained, and doesn't feed a stream. I think it will stay that way, although plans could change, I guess.
As far as the HOA "taking over the maintenance," the only change will be that we'll start paying for it. The developers will continue to be responsible for doing it (two of the three live out here, and I understand the third has plans to do so, eventually).
...a weird looking guy riding a rather strange bike...
Wasn't me. I'm the strange looking guy riding a rather weird bike. Big difference. ;-)
OK, it probably was me.
Posted by: Eric at July 2, 2008 01:23 PMHa ha! I thought that could have been you. But you really weren't strange or weird looking.
Posted by: Geo at July 3, 2008 03:41 PMAbout the publisher
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"If you look closely, you can see MLB working in the yard, wearing a halter top and hot pants. I'm not sure why she insists on doing that, but the neighbors haven't complained*.
I'm all for this, for a number of reasons"
Oh... there was a paragraph break there. :-)
Posted by: kyle at June 24, 2008 05:49 PM