Saturday, December 1, 2007

Neighbors

Fall has lived up to its name. The leaves have fallen and I am busy picking up the ones that are not wanted in the garden for mulch. That brings me to a pet peeve. We have a neighbor who is, in most respects, very nice. But the leaves that fall in their yard aren't picked up until mid-December. That means I have to keep cleaning out our gardens because their leaves blow into our yard.
I don't think that they are doing it to annoy me. I suspect they're too cheap to pay to have the leaves removed more than once. I really can't say anything because they are retired teachers and might have to economize. But I can complain here. They don't use the Internet.
It's odd that some neighbors are wonderful and stay friends long after you or they move away and some, you never get to know at all. I guess I've been lucky. We've never had a truly rotten neighbor. Example: I remember a friend of my parents while I was growing up. He sued people. Sometimes it seemed as if he was consciously setting them up for a court case. Other than that, he was a bright, nice guy. But I'm really happy that we didn't live right next door to him.
There's a term that I hear used in the country, "neighborly". I can't give it a precise definition, only cite examples of "neighborliness". If, for example there is a hail storm coming, the neighborly will let people who have no garages park in his shed to protect their cars. Or if someone is putting up a fence and a neighbor has a post hole digger, he'll offer it to the guy putting up the fence. I don't think that I've managed to get a real hold on "neighborly", but I hope you know what I mean.

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