i got to thinking tonight... 4 years ago, this memorial day weekend, we moved into this house.
in that 4 years, we've had a lot of interesting interactions with our neighbors. it started with the guy who lives diagonally across the street- blaring his rock music at 1 am the first week we were here. oh no you didn't.
that same guy came knocking at our door the following january, at 9pm on a sunday night. it was in the negative degrees outside, and we were baffled as to why anyone was out in that weather. he was having family problems and was looking for help. we called the cops.
then there's the single woman across the street, who has a teenage son. we saw him alongside the road one night, returning home from a date. it was 11pm, and his car was in the ditch. he had been doing donuts in the middle of the 2 lane country highway, and he spun off the road. kids these days! this is the same kid who used to scream "white power" when getting off the school bus in the afternoons, setting my dog into a barking frenzy, waking my napping children. grrrr. thankfully he doesn't ride the bus anymore, but i don't know if that has anything to do with it!
then there's lady to the east. i feel bad- we've met her twice, and i still can't remember her name. anyways. she is widowed and probably in her 80s. both times i've met her, she's complained about being old and alone. she has lots of negative things to say about anything and everything. she
does have a man-friend who comes to pick her up for lunch, almost every day. she's told me she doesn't like his driving, and i laugh every time i see them leave her drive-way, and
she is driving them in his car. can't wait to get old!
and that leaves neighbor lady to the west, ms. shirley. her husband actually built the house we live in, back in the 1940s. when they sold the farm to our landlords almost 10 years ago, they kept one acre and built a new house there. in the 4 years we've lived here, i've never met her. i've only ever seen her once. i don't think she has left her house. she has people that come stay with her, i think they're her kids. she has a guy that mows her yard once a week- mr. wayne. he's a celebrity here at our house- because he has a really nice, expensive, zero-turn riding mower that jacob just loves! jacob sits on our driveway an watches him for 45 minutes straight. :)
and our newest neighbors, (actually we should be charging them rent because they are living in a bush on our back porch), are 4 baby mockingbirds. they have one busy momma!
jesse built the kids a birdhouse on monday, to house future bird families on our back porch, and they finally got to paint it tonight. daddy was working late- my instructions were "pick 2 colors that mix well together, not 2 colors that make....brown."
