Neighbors

Mr. Rogers ain't got nothing on Ruggles Street. We have the greatest neighbors. You should want to be our neighbor. Case in point: It has been snowing buckets here since Saturday. So much so that Shawn shoveled this morning before going to work at 7:30am and everything was buried again by the time I left for work at 8:45am. Dreading the drive home and the shoveling that would ensue, I was surprised and delighted to see a neighbor had already snow-blown our driveway for us! And, this isn't the first time. We've come home to a clean driveway on more then one occasion.

This simple gesture doesn't even scratch the surface of our ridiculously grand neighborhood. When we first moved in and were redoing our kitchen, a lovely neighbor, who happened to be a retired plumber, came and helped us install everything for the kitchen sink. He also helped replace our faucet for the wash tub in the basement and even snaked our drain just after Thanksgiving after we discovered a small pond in our basement. This was the same neighbor we had to politely, and repetitively, ask to stop mowing our front lawn because silly us, we wanted to mow it ourselves.

You want more? One neighbor graciously came, cut a hole in our attic and installed a much-needed bathroom fan. Another neighbor came over to take a look at a light socket behind our garage and ended up installing a motion-light that same day. A different neighbor came over to visit and on a whim ended up caulking sealant around all of our kitchen counter tops. A year before that, her husband strolled over and helped us put plastic on all our windows and the following summer, helped us transport and chop down our weight in wood. Even better yet, one neighbor has been known to just show up at our door with a tasty treat, for no particular reason at all.

These acts of kindness don't even compare to the list of items we've borrowed, taken or consumed since we've been here. For example: wheel barrows, a chain saw, rakes, shovels, a mower, axes, cars, fans, wood, tables, chairs, coolers, hard drives, liquor, a mattress, an occasional ingredient for cooking, a grill, a bike, an air mattress, an air compressor, movies, recipes, labor and of course, Oreos. Needless to say, we've made borrowing a habit. We've delayed the purchase of many things, just because we know we could borrow them from a neighbor. We just bought rakes this past fall and better yet, we just bought a shovel this past winter. We have lived in Minnesota for almost 5 years and just bought a shovel.

I don't know how we managed to fall onto the greatest street, but we are thankful every time we lock ourselves out and have to borrow a key to get back in. Or when we need someone to watch the Normster for almost two weeks while we travel to Europe. Or when we want to light our Christmas tree on fire to time how quick it dissipates. Or when we need a place to crash because our house is overwhelmed with people. Or when we just want to sit around a fire, grill some supper and drink some beer.