"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

About Last Night......

What a nice evening for a run. i had a client meeting in the evening and arrived home around 8:00, Dancing with the Stars be damned....i was going for a run.

It was great!!!! The days rain had eased into a steady downfall of white fluffy snow. Y'know the kind of snow that just floats; no wind; no rain, just a light dusting on the ground. i was in heaven.

i really love this time of year. Not enough Christmas lights on yet, but thats ok. My neighborhood allows for a simple route that lets me get an easy 3 miles in without ever leaving the subdivision. Since Fun Guv was still at work, i was able to pass by the house a few times making sure the kids were fine.

3 miles, or 23:56, later...workout done.....and i was still able to watch the second dances of the finalists. Still not gay....not sure how....but guilty pleasures are exactly that....guilty.....kinda like the ABBA on my mp3 player....nothing beats a tempo run to a swedish blond chick, and her wing-girl...




C'mon click it!!!!


Anyway back to the point. As i ran through the sub, i remembered times growing up and how much i knew about my neighbors as a kid. Y'know when everyone knew each others names. Like the Davis's across the street, or the Craven's (whose lawn i mowed), the Rice's, Gauthier's, etc.... With people who would smile and wave in that old soooo1970's way and with a goofy smile. People who didn't mind telling my folks when i was seen acting like a moron, or were given my parents permission to corporal-ly punish me (the ultimate embarrassment), but mostly people who i liked and at least seemed to like my folks and through osmossis....me.

Well, truly today, know a lot of my neighbors and they know me. Across the street are Tim and Jackie, who moved into the house the Jackie grew up in, as her mother has had a few bad years. Across the other side (we live on a corner lot), is Tony, retired and lives alone but friendly enough. Next to Tony is Jerry and Ginny, 30's no kids and Jerry has 7 screws holding his back together after an accident a few years ago, Lucky to be alive...let alone walk.

Next to us on one side is John and Shelly, again early 30's, but kids....had a few tooooo many adult beverages with them this summer and learned all about how Shelly was a homecoming queen in high school, a little embarrassing for her and John as Shelly's folks, also a bit of a party-ing crew, loved to talk about her time as a high maintenace high schooler. Lot's of Fun , and fellow Billy Idol fans. One Saturday, sleeping with the windows open, Fun Guv and i were awakened to the Kareoke Stylings of MONY MONY at about 2:30 am





Gotta watch the cussing....the kids read this.... y'know????

Anyway....on the other side is Lynn.....Looooove Lynn..... and our occasional Friday nite Happy hour(s). Well....the happy hour(s) started innocently enough, but none of the neighbors join us....so usually it's Mike (ME) and Lynn, drinking until one of us is ....done.....and Fun Guv enjoying the talk with her Diet Coke.

Well, i guess as i ponder sociatal changes, and risk this post getting as long winded and tiresome, as if written by a college professor...of music, i know that many of my other neighbors only know me as that weird, ex-hippy guy on the corner, who runs a lot.

i wonder how much of my out-going nature and desire to know the neighbors, is a leftover from growing up small town northern Michigan??? Most people i talk to while knocking on doors, plain ole'cold-calling, part of the new job and a definite, take-a-person-out-of-their-comfort-level meet people and shake their hands, never seem to know anybody they live next door to.

Once i met a nurse, who had a nursing student living next door, neither knew the other person, and i introduced them. Not my neighbors, just people i met door-knocking.

Where was i going with this again???

Thanks for reading

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any thoughts on joining me for the 40/40? C'mon, we hatched this plan together during our nighttime 20-miler, didn't we?

Let's do it.

Howdy neighbor.

Animal said...

I too miss the days of general neighborliness, when you could be summoned home for supper by your mom throwing open the door and just SHOUTING your name across several blocks.

And you can be as long-winded as you want, smartass...EVERYBODY loves that, right? RIGHT?!