The new neighbors

I live in a rural neighborhood outside of a college town. It’s a hilly and densely forested area a few miles outside of town. The lots are all 2 to 3 acres and it’s a peaceful place. The land sold cheap about 30 years ago, and lots of people snatched up the lots and put trailers on their property. Mos of those people were looking for a place to retire. So….as the property becomes available again, younger families are moving in, hauling off the trailers, and building houses. We were lucky, our house was in place and waiting when we found it. The couple who used to live next door had a really shiddy trailer, and used to tell me about their big plans to build a house on the property, but about 6 months ago they told us that they were selling and moving out. Their crappy trailer was worthless, so they were selling cheap. Now and again I’d see hillbillies jumpin out of their trucks to go look at the place. They showed the place to lots of people I didn’t want next door, but I was powerless. When they told us they found a buyer, I braced myself…..but they said they were selling to a young couple with a little girl my daughters age, so thats good. The old owners moved out a couple weeks ago, and the new ones arrived and started painting, repairing, and putting up a fence. Their little girl has already become my daughters new best friend and things are going good. The other couple was nice enough, but not real smart. The husband was an electrician and seemed cool, but his wife told us once that they have financial problems because he ran up thousands of dollars in bills to some 1-900 chat line. That’s creepy. The wife was friendly, but if the topic of conversation got more complicated than “the people across the street”, or “bubbas new truck” her eyes would start rolling back in her head. I kinda expected the same from the new neighbors, but when I first met them, they introduced their dog as “terra”, and said they named her that because her spots reminded them of Pangea breaking up as continental drift progressed. We invited them over last weekend and spent hours talking smack and laughing without a single eye rolling. They’re both intelligent and nice, and as it turns out, they bought the property to build a new house on. Whew…….