neighbors

For the last few days as we quickly (but not quickly enough!) packed all of our stuff, and tried to clear out the house, mostly what I thought about was our neighbors. Last weekend we had several over for a very casual dinner of hot dogs and chili. We had a fun time with everyone. The past few days many neighbors have stopped by to say goodbye, get an update, or just tease us about all the stuff we are getting rid of, etc. all of that and more make me think about what great neighbors we have/had. As we got further behind in our efforts, (MAYBE partly due to my husbands inability to throw out something thats perfectly good) we got help from sooo many people! Poor Liz and Jim, who got so many things from us that we were sure they needed, whether they agreed or not. I think Jim started hiding so we couldn't give him anything, but thats ok, we started just leaving stuff in their garage that we wanted them to have. The trash and recyclables became a pile too big to handle, and Andy next door pitched right in. He took the recyclables and offered to put them out on recycling day, and then offered his dumpster so we could get rid of the pile of stuff. Mary, from the house behind us, came to say goodbye, and offered to take the canned goods that we were looking to donate and find a food bank to donate them to. Billy and George, from across the street, came over many times to help Paul lift and carry the things that were just too much for me. Beth offered to store Jessie's stuff in her garage for the 3 weeks until she leaves for school... and I will never forget my last hour at the house. I can laugh now, but I was a little frazzled at the time, I admit! With less than 2 hours to closing, it was clear that we had too much to fit in the truck and if we took the time to try to pack it, we seriously weren't going to make it to the closing. Paul's huge, heavy toolbox was supposed to go in the back of the truck but it was tooo heavy to lift. On a positive note, it had wheels....a quick decision was made and I started wheeling it over to Liz's house, calling her on the phone as I went. I told her we were out of time and room in the truck and still had "stuff" . She not only took the toolbox, she came over with her little wagon and took more. she told us to just leave what we couldn't take in the driveway, and she would take it over to her house. We took her up on the offer, and were on our way to closing! That's what I will miss!