not in my world

I always read the real estate section in the Tribune

     Not because I am looking for a new house, but because I am curious.
     This past Sunday, an article made me gasp for air.
     There were three houses for sale in the suburban Chicago area. One house, in Bull Valley, was listed for $925,000.  That's a lot of money.
     Now Bull Valley is one of those areas that is drop dead beautiful.  Older homes, large lots, plenty of trees.  A really nice place.
     And $925,000 might not be a bad price to pay for a house on 34 acres.
     The house has 17,426 square feet.  By comparison, our current house has about 2,400.
     What would you do with that much space?  My heavens, I get tired just thinking of all the bathrooms to clean!
     But the part that made me gasp was the $65,000 annual real estate  tax bill.
     Holy crap, that is a lot of moolah!
     So even if that house is four times the price of mine, the tax bill is almost 12 times my tax bill!
     The guy is probably selling and moving to Wisconsin.
     That's a lot of coin for the pleasure of living in Lake County Illinois.
     On a side note, I had an interesting conversation with da Great Soady Ridge Buck last night.
     As I was driving home at 1 a.m., I approached Skare Road and noticed a fog over the road.
     It wasn't a big fog, maybe about 12 feet high, but it was rolling across Flagg Road right before I turned, hindering my view.
    I slowed down.  As I slowed down, out stepped a 12 point buck with a rack as huge as the UP!
     Stepped right outa dat fog, it did!
     I stopped the car...what else could I do?
     I watched in a silent awe as dat buck slowly crossed dat fog covered road.
    As it hit the yellow center line, it turned and looked straight at me.  It's lips were moving, like it was chewing.  Or talking.
    I turned down the radio and asked, are you da Great Soady Ridge Buck?
    It did not answer, but kept staring at me, its lips moving.
     After what seemed hours of being stopped in the fog in the middle of the road at 1 a.m., I got frustrated and said, "I can't hear you."
     The big one took several steps to da shoulder, den it turned to me an said......"slow down."
     Den it disappeared in da fog.
     I cautiously and slowly turned the corner onto Skare Road and there, not 10 feet from Flagg, were three deer, right in the middle of the road.
     If I had been going my normal speed, I would have hit at least one of them.
     Now, I don't generally believe in ghosts......but Da Great Soady Ridge Buck now goes down with Ghost Dog as spectral haunts I do believe.
    And with that, good night.