Good Neighbors

A neighbor stops by when I am working in the garage. Most of the time, I cringe when I see him walk up the driveway, only because talking with him makes me stop working. When I was in high school, I knew of this guy who was a few years older than me. Today, he is retired and living on a fixed income, which is not much.

This morning, he stopped by when I was bringing our trash can off the street. He asked where my storm debris is. I told him it is in my front yard, which is out of sight from where we were standing. Last week we had a rough storm go through that knocked down trees and broke limbs in most everyone’s yards. The city has a grappling truck going around collecting all the storm debris.

My neighbor, who stopped to talk, said that a few days earlier, a truck with a trailer had been picking up his debris. He went out to talk with the workers and asked what they charged. They responded, ‘nothing, your neighbor paid us to remove their debris and yours.

I thought it was so cool that his neighbor knew he couldn't afford to pay to have his debris pile removed and paid for it. That is what good neighbors do.

Hopefully, the city’s grappling truck will remove our debris soon. I look forward to seeing the pile gone.