New Neighbor

The house next door has been vacant for a few months — it’s up for rent, not for sale — but some new folks just moved in last week. We saw many people helping in the move, so we weren’t sure who exactly the new neighbors were. We saw one young boy (around 8 years old?) helping move, and we assumed our boys might make a new friend.

We were going to let the folks have a few days to get settled in before we said tried to say, “Hi.” But after the first two days of actually moving in, we didn’t see anyone outside at a time when we could walk over and greet them. (I’m not one for walking over and knocking on the door, but I will walk over and greet and chat in the yard.)

Cowgrit had me outside working on the yard yesterday. Cutting the grass, cutting back the bushes, trimming this, that, and the other, etc. I knew it would be just my luck to first see and greet the new neighbors looking like this. I was dirty, sweaty, and generally not real presentable. The “man of the house” (or so I assumed) came home in the afternoon, and seeing me in the front yard, he walked over.

We greeted each other, exchanged names, and shook hands. He’s probably about my age. He was in clean jeans, clean shirt, clean shoes, and clean skin. I was wearing a sweaty t-shirt, dirty work pants, nasty old shoes, and equally un-presentable skin. Not exactly the way I wanted to make a first impression with a new neighbor.

He seems like a nice guy. He’s from California, but I won’t hold that against him. He’s been in our state for three years, and I think I could like him just fine. He complimented us on the weather, of all things. He said he’s used to “sunny and 72 degrees all year,” and he likes that we get a good range of weather through the year.

Well, God bless him. I’d love to experience sunny and 72 for even just a whole month. With our climate, in the spring and fall (the only time the temp hangs around 72 degrees), the temperature can fluctuate 15 degrees in 24 hours. If it’s 72 today, it could have been 60 yesterday, and it might be 80 tomorrow.

Anyway, it seems our neighbors are not a family. It’s this guy and his roommate. Oh well, I guess that means there’s no new friend for my boys. Too bad. We’re still surrounded by 2-6 year old girls.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com