How is it I Never Met This Guy Before?

This is a short, neighborly story. This weekend Kate and I spent a little time cleaning out the last bits of stuff from the Stevenson Ln. basement. The real estate agent suggested it would make the basement look bigger. By the end we had a completely full truck and a queen size mattress, box spring and an old dining room table to unload. We left it in the alley for bulk trash pick up, which it turns out isn't a service offered by Baltimore County.

I contacted both Salvation Army and Goodwill, the latter of which didn't accept mattresses. The former did, but made it difficult to manage. So I settled on taking everything to the dump. A shame, I know, but what are you gonna do?

The climax of the story, please. Yes, of course. So today I went over early in the morning to tie everything to the roof of the truck for transport. In the middle of hauling all four pieces over to the car a neighbor on the opposite side of the alley came out and offered to help. I was very happy to accept. After lifting the mattress onto the truck it became clear the tying everything down was going to be tricky. Doable, but time consuming. My neighbor...we'll call him Scott because apparently that's his name, then offered to haul everything to the dump himself in his pick up truck. He was heading that way anyway, he said. I tried to refuse, but he was insistent. So I took him up on the offer.

We chatted as we loaded his pick up. Turns out he moved into his house in '98, exactly the same year, and only a month or two earlier than my move in. And in all that time we never had the occasion to meet. Now, eleven years and change later we meet in the twilight of my residency, probably never to speak again, and the guy goes and does an incredibly neighborly thing.

I think people are inherently good. Or rather people, by nature, think of others at least as much as they think of themselves.

Neighborly Advise

My garden out front has prompted some neighborly conversation that's included some gardening tips. This past Sunday we got a knock on the door and it was this lady from down the street asking if she could buy some of my basil. I told her she could just have some, but she insisted she pay me. She gave me two bucks in change and I asked if she could show me the best way to cut it. She was from Thailand and said she had a lot of wisdom about herbs. I grabbed a pair of scissors and watched how she snipped the top of the herb brushes at a angle. She also let me know that I should be cutting the flowering that's growing above all the herbs, supposedly the flowering effects the taste of the herbs making them more bitter. She was very kind and helpful.

Today I was out front cutting the flowering off and this nice redheaded lady came by and told me how much she loved my garden. She said she had to admit that when she walks by here everyday she brushes her hands past my herbs and that the smell of the lemon and cinnamon basil just makes her happy. That is such a wonderful compliment. She said her name was May, I think, and that she comes by here all the time. As I was throwing the flowering into the trash, she said I could still use those for seasoning stir fries and stews, by taking the flowering off the stems and freezing it. So then I started saving them. I just got done getting all the flowers off the stems and throwing a full bag of herbs into the freezer. My hands now smell amazing.

It's great to get such wonderful neighborly advise. Thanks ladies!

When You're Wrong About the Right Things

I'm wrong about things occasionally. Sometimes more than occasionally. I've had to eat my share of crow more times than I can count. So it's nice when I'm wrong about something, and the truth of things is a much better situation than what I guessed initially.

This entry is an update to my last post. Yesterday afternoon Kate and I ran into one of the guys from next door. He was concerned that the party had been too loud, and wanted to make sure we were okay with things. Apparently the roommates had knocked on our door before the party to give us a heads up, but we either weren't home or didn't hear the door. That was one of our gripes. We felt like, if you're going to throw a loud party, at least give your neighbors some warning. And it seems like they actually tried to.

Plus he confirmed our hope that this was just a housewarming party. A one-time blowout, not to be followed by more of the same on a constant basis. He seemed like a good kid who wanted to do the right thing. During the conversation, he returned the drill he'd borrowed, and let me know that while using it the roommates had stripped the bit, so they replaced it. Very cool.

Of course it remains to be seen whether Ming is a man of his word. But I'm pretty optimistic now, and very glad it appears I was wrong about them. If you have to be wrong, hopefully you can be wrong about the right things.

Having (and Being) Good Neighbors

It's a quid pro quo situation. Neighborly relations are developed over time by rational people interested in the welfare of others and community peace. You can't expect neighborly behavior from others if you aren't willing to be neighborly yourself. Not over the long term, at least. We had that type of relationship in spades with our neighbors back in Towson. We looked out for each other and tried, as best we could, to be considerate. Living in row homes, you need to be extra alert since you and your neighbors share walls.

There are a lot of rentals where we live now. In fact the two houses to our left and the one (at least) to our right are rentals, and the two left-hand properties tend to rent to college kids. Not good neighbors. Last night our directly adjacent, and newly moved-in neighbors threw a huge party with loud music, screaming, chanting, and probably fornicating with ancient evil entities from a reality parallel to, but not "of" our reality. Having just shed the previous tenants who were really big partiers, we were disappointed.

When this new batch of kids was moving in Kate had been neighborly to them, lending them hammers and screwdrivers and a drill. And with this party we were willing to give them slack. If it was just a house-warming party, not to be followed by others every other week, no sweat. We'll see. Once you don't have good neighbors, you really realize what a positive thing it is.

So try not to take good neighbors for granted, if you've got them. Be friendly and watch out for each other. An amiable, neighborly environment is more likely to keep the sorts of neighbors you want, so try and establish relationships with more distant neighbors you don't already know. For our part, we're going to start going to neighborhood association meetings. Try and get to know the good neighbors we have but haven't met yet. If we all work together we can hopefully "snuff up" the less "exemplary" members of our community. We like where we live...it just needs a few modifications.