Giving Thanks

Early morning: On Thanksgiving I'm giving thanks for friends, near and far.

Later morning: I've already indicated thankfulness for friends, now I'll specifically include friends of the feline persuasion: Tucker, the one no visitor ever sees, and Henry, the one who observes visitors from afar. When there are no guests, there is no aloofness. They present me with unconditional love; moving from room to room with me, my own adoring groupies. I'm thankful for those sweet, furry faces.

Early afternoon: Another subset of friends to be thankful for. Friendly neighbors.

I'll start with former neighbors. After 5 years, I still mourn losing Denise and Richard as across-the-street neighbors when I moved. (I tried to talk them into moving, too.) Not just because Richard plowed my drive as routinely as he did theirs -- believe me, not insignificant to me since it was long and drifted and I never once in 13 winters had to wonder what I was going to do about it. Not just because I knew they kept an eye out for me since they knew I lived alone -- not in a nosy way, but in an if-we-hear-a-scream-from-over-there-we'll-come-running-with-the-shotgun way. (Although if I ever want to leave that too-much-pizza rep behind, I WILL have to pay them off. Associated story involving a house painter painting over my house numbers, them worrying I'd starve because pizza delivery wouldn't be able to find me, blah blah blah. So not funny. :D) Good people.

Which leads to current neighbors, LeeAnn and Mike across the street. (NOT the idiot parkers.) LeeAnn knew I've had this bad cold and wasn't planning on doing anything today. I looked out the window a little earlier to see her dashing across the street with an aluminum foil-covered plate. It was heaped with turkey, mashed pototoes, and all the different things they had for Thanksgiving dinner. (She tried to take my order so she could bring a piece of pie, too!) Bless her heart.

And Chris next door. He spent the good part of an hour up and down a ladder trying to get the motion lights in my yard adjusted last fall. And purely because of his care, the strip of my yard between our houses deserves the term "lawn" -- the only part of the yard that does. He's made sure I have his cell number in case I need anything. (I lived across the hall from his aunt in my first apartment. Elkhart's not huge, but weird coincidence!) Nice guy.

So, I'm also thankful for good neighbors. They're a wonderful thing to have.