Impromptu Visitors

As I sat working at my computer yesterday afternoon, I heard a loud knock on my front door. I raised the blinds to see who it might be in all this frozen blanket around my house. I did not recognize the lady, but thought it must be okay. I opened the door and saw a tall young man all bundled up. I opened the glass storm door and said, "Are you my neighbors". He said "yes", so I opened the door and said " come in out of the cold". Then it dawned on me who they were. It was the youngest couple on our road, a teacher and his wife an LPN. He has authored two books for children and teaches English in another county.

He had edited some of my writing so I thanked him for his help and we sat and talked almost an hour. It was an interesting interlude on such a cold day. They had taken pictures of deer tracks on my property as they walked up the hill and other pictures as well. He told me he would send them to me via email.

I think the reason I did not recognize them is that it was only the second time I had seen these neighbors. My house is on a hill and they live down the road on a side road. I had invited them to come along with their renter (who lives on a lower level) to shower one day when he had been without water for several days. That was the second time I had seen the young man. He came over once to help me with some incident with the dogs I was "baby sitting".

Even though we in this "neck of the woods" do not see each other often, we are still a neighborhood and feel connected by that fact. All of us have wells to supply our water, some of us heat with electric power, others with propane gas. Some have television by cable and I have only the local stations with high def. At least one of my neighbors has a generator in case of total electric outage. Only one family has children young enough to still be in school. Three of us are, or have been, teachers. At least three of the head of households are retired. At least two of us have businesses in town. I think I am the only one who is into gardening, though on a small scale. At least five of us have docks on the lake and only I have no boat. Also, I might add I am the only one to have bow hunters come in deer season to try their luck here on my five and a half acres.

So, we are enough alike to get along well and different enough to make life
interesting. We are a good demographic mix to have a congenial, safe, and forward looking community. Though our homes are separated and not all are visible we are patriotic, law abiding, voting, established citizens and committed to keeping our group alive and well. When folks move into our midst they tend to like it and to stay here. No homes for sale !

So, in the dead of winter when no one can get out on the icy roads and time gets heavy on your hands, a knock on your door is a nice surprise and a good way to renew acquaintances.