Thursday, October 15, 2009

The Good Neighbor


We are still without electricity this morning, but happily, we are not without friends. Yesterday, I was bemoaning the fate of my two freezers (and their contents) to our neighbor down the street. Not 5 minutes later, this dear man appeared on my doorstep with a little red wagon to offload the entire contents of both freezers into a great big one in his garage. It took a couple of trips to get it all (lots of food dollars saved), and I could have hugged him! In fact, I kinda did...from the side, so as not to make him too uncomfortable.

As he left, I said, "Thank you so much. You are such a good friend." His reply? "No, just an appreciative one." To which I replied, "Appreciative?! That's what I am!!" (We could have gone on to a one-upsmanship battle of appreciation at this point, but my good neighbor and ex-bishop, in his superior wisdom, didn't play.) Instead, he just smiled at me fondly and walked away, his wagon full of all the meat and vegetables and frozen confections that wouldn't have lasted through another night or day...or however long it takes for me to actually get some electricity in this joint!

Don't you love a good neighbor? I do, and he or she doesn't even have to live on your street. You see, I was also bemoaning (okay, okay, so I did a lot of whining to my friends yesterday) the impending fate (likely doom?) of a dinner party my husband, aka his bishopness, had planned tonight to welcome all of the new move-ins to the singles ward. "What am I going to do?" I wailed. I have no fridge, no freezer no oven, and no lights!" After giving some consideration to a spooky night of pizza and candlelight, the fatal flaw in this plan occurred to me...How do young people get acquainted when they can't even see each other? They could meet the loves of their lives and not even recognize them on Sunday!

I'll bet you can guess the punchline here. Right. The dinner party has been offloaded as well, to another good "neighbor" who lives in the community next to mine. She has it all––fridge, freezer, oven, lights, and a generous heart willing to accommodate not only my needs but a houseful of young adults for dinner.

When I thanked her profusely, she assured me it was no trouble at all because she was already hosting her own ward's party this Saturday! I responded that perhaps we should try to get something going for her on Friday night as well, so she could have parties three evenings in a row. She laughed...appreciatively...an indisputable evidence of her inherent good nature that I, in turn, greatly appreciated. (I did manage to avoid the appreciation one-upsmanship battle this time, though.) I'm a fast learner.

Don't you love a good neighbor? I surely do!

=)

PS. Pacific Gas and Electric Company - NOT a good neighbor. =(

PPS. All of you, my blogging friends - VERY good neighbors. =)

PPPS. This time around, I am blogging from the parking lot at Starbucks. Yep, I've discovered that I can take advantage of their wi-fi from the comfort of my own car! (Don't worry...I bought a banana from them to make it all kosher.)

10 comments:

jen said...

That's one of the blessings of the Lord assigning us into wards that are also neighborhoods. So happy you have people there to take care of you.
And Starbucks also has great muffins, as I found out when Heidi and I were in NYC this last spring. I hope you don't have to use their WiFi again to discover how tasty they are!

Anonymous said...

I have lived so long with out LDS neighbors I don't know what it would be like to have them again.

I'm glad you are grateful for your wonderful blessing.

karen said...

I do love Starbucks...their soy hot chocolate is my tasty winter treat! And, as Jen said, their baked goods are to die for. What a wierd storm for you NOT to have power, but your neighbor does. Hope you get it back soon - hang in there! At least your food is safe.

VK said...

I have always had great non-LDS neighbors.
Hopefully I have been a good one too.
Our Bishop (Jones) in Portland, OR used to say it was hard to "keep up with" the non-member, non-Jones in his little neighborhood.
In Dec. 1995 we were without power for 5 days. There were 8 homes from mine on down the street that just weren't a large enough # to be high on the list for repairs. My neighbor caddie-corner across the street, plugged my freezer into his electricity. Easy fix I'd say.

Katie Blacker said...

wow, blogging from the parking lot? I love your commitment!

what a pain to be with out electricity! friends are a good thing, aren't they?

The Valsy said...

That is a very "warm fuzzy" that President Monson would be very proud of. :)You should leave some of your frozens as a thank you.

Em said...

hahaha, man without buying that banana you would have had some SERIOUS repenting to do for stealing free internet!!!;-) i know how it is to want to entertain the ward socials at your house. it's just warm and inviting. when sean was in the bishop at byui we had two or three apts over each sunday night for treats to get to know them. they are some of our fondest memories. however, in the end, the place doesn't seem to matter as much as the people who are there, so glad to hear you have a good neighor to take over:-) all of this talk of starbucks is reminding me of how i had to have a peppermint white hot chocolate every week when i was pregnant with brennan. they tasted SO good!!! i almost died fearing you would lose two freezer fulls of food. i would be so upset if i lost what was in my freezer right now and i guarantee it's a 4th of the size of your one, but let me tell you, we know how to pack it full. i'm always checking every night to make sure it's closed tight. we had a freezer break when we were out of town once. thankfully renter's insurance footed the bill. love usaa. still, all of my homemade frozen meals can't be replaced!

Momza said...

I miss my good neighbors from other areas we've lived. We barely know anyone here and it stinks on ice.
If you were my neighbor I'd never get any housework done cuz I'd be visiting with you all the day long.

Good neighbors rock!

Sistas in Zion said...

So true, good neighbors are a blessing, and so is finding free wifi in a parking lot!

Heather Anderson said...

I am glad you have good neighbors to help you out") I can just picture the little red wagon full of food, too funny!