I dunno who Stefanie Murray at the A2 Snooze is but if she has decided that my neighborhood does not have a “decidedly upscale demographic”, maybe she needs to visit. Er, not that my neighborhood *does* have a “decidedly upscale demographic. But. The article is in regard to a new and much-awaited, at least on my part, “upscale” grocery store in Maple Village. It is literally within walking distance of my house. Think Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, et al. She opines that the new store may not have enough “up-scale” customers in close proximity to it to survive. Now, I worry a little bit about whether another “upscale” grocery store can survive around here too. But I’m worried more about the already heavily flooded market of “upscale” grocery stores we have on The Planet Ann Arbor and there are many and I’ve already listed two. And actually, you can get just about every kind of “upscale” grocery product you want from the local Kroger and Meijer networks. It’s just more fun at the “upscale” grocery stores, which is why I sometimes schlep all the way across town to go to an “upscale” grocery store. I don’t think the new store will have any problem attracting customers from my decidedly down-scale (??) neighborhood. Harumph.

I don’t have the foggiest idea about who this particular reporter is, but it seems obvious that she doesn’t have the slightest idea about who lives in my neighborhood. Take *us* here at The Landfill. Is this a fancy house? No. Do I ever wish I had more than the Blue and Only Bathroom? Sometimes, but I sure like the idea of only *cleaning* one bathroom. Is this house more than adequate? Yes!! I mean, it wasn’t always easy with two teenagers but it wasn’t that hard either. Is it in a beautiful location? Woods behind the back yard? Get my point? IS IT PAID FOR??? Yesirree, for years now. ((((Is yours? You don’t have to answer.)))) Who’s next door? Elderly neighbors who have been here since the beginning of time. On both sides. People seem to like this obscure little neighborhood well enough to pay their houses off and stay here forever. If it’s such a horribly poor, desolate, “downscale” neighborhood, why on earth would anyone want to do that?

Kee-reist. We are not wealthy here at The Landfill. But this is a house we were able to pay off way early and that allowed me to drop out of the corporate world for a while to raise my children. Was it easy? No way, but we *could* afford it. We probably could’ve moved out into somebody’s old bulldozed woods or farm field into one of those ticky-tacky McMansion subdivisions. We didn’t want to. We are here. We love this neighborhood. I hate real-estate developers and their terra-forming ways but that’s a whole nother story.

Sorry. I dunno why that article made me so mad. I am happy to have an “upscale” grocery store close by. I *hate* having to drive all over hell and gone to get to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. So, Stefanie, I’ll be there on Thursday after work. Will you? Sincerely Yours, Kayak Woman!

P. S. That’s the GG in our loverly living room. No, I dunno what he is doing. He is always doing something but I don’t always know what. Yes, you’re right, we do not have a separate dining room. Love, Your Snarkiness, aka Kayak Woman.

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