Bougainvillea, Part Two  "When you own a house, you make all
these compromises": Raffles and Simpson on the Upper West Side.
Photo: Brian Kennedy  [Part One: They leave New York for a great
academic job, buy a Santa Cruz beach house, fight over the
Weedwacker and then . . . ] [Hugh] We discovered why nobody else
was fighting about cutting the grass. They'd hire workers.
[Sharon] We just couldn't do that. [Hugh] It would take us half
a day. These guys could cut it in 30 minutes. [Sharon] In the
end, we did that. [Hugh] I'd hide. I was so humiliated. [Sharon]
We felt so guilty, we also gave them the same amount of money we
were paying their boss. [Hugh] When you own a house, you make
all these compromises. People would walk past. Their dog would
pee. [Hugh wags his finger.] You turn into one of those suburban
Republicans—complaining about property taxes, checking real
estate prices. You become invested in this whole system that you
really just hate. [Sharon] I'd tell you not to look at the
prices. [Hugh] My fea