A Stir in the Neighborhood

This afternoon I stepped outside my door and was startled by my neighbor standing right there on the sidewalk.

Oh how I wish I could've taken a photo of her - she's photogenic in a funny, but beautiful, sort of way.

Unwashed hair, smudges on her face, pants held up by a rope for a belt, dirty clothes, no coat.

Twinkle in her eye, telling me she's praying for me, and her brother's praying for Claire. Kind words about us as neighbors and wishes for my birthday which she said she forgot (it was in August).

But the other reason she came over was to tell me she'd be over in the morning to take our trash down to the end of the road.

This is an ongoing conversation with her.

Like, every other day right now!

She, along with her brother (who are both mentally handicapped, but very dear), live just a few feet down the road from us.

Dave's car is in front of our house, and they live at the end of this lane

A "big" change occurred in our neighborhood a few weeks ago, thus the topic of frequent conversation with her.

The city took away the big garbage container that used to sit at this corner for all ten years that we've lived in our house. So walking the trash down, which had been such a part of our lives, is no longer necessary.

That's our house in the distance, with Dave's green car in front

It was certainly a good change for the people who are building a house right next to where the container sat. How would you like to have an overflowing, ugly garbage dumpster in front of your house?!

However, this change caused quite a stir with our neighbor (we call her Pani).

She was so happy to tell us the big news: garbage service was coming TO THE END OF OUR ROAD to pick up our trash, rather than us having to walk it down to the dumpster

This news has given her a new reason to stop by frequently.

She comes every other day to let me know that she'll be here on Tuesday morning to roll our garbage can down to the end of the road for us. She's decided it's her "job", and we're happy to have her do it!

She has a little cart that she somehow manages to put our bin on, along with her shiny new can. She then wheels the cart down the lane and waits until the garbagemen come to pick it up.

I told her today that she's our best neighbor, to which she replied with a giggle, "No I'm not! I'm just an old grandma! YOU are the best neighbor!"

You just can't give her a compliment without her giving one back!

For now we do still get our mail here in front of these people's house, but I'm thinking that will surely go away too once they move in.

That's not exactly a nice front yard decoration!

There is one little somebody who is actually quite sad about the change in our garbage service.

Every time I'd pull the big bag out of the garbage can in our kitchen, she'd excitedly dance around because she knew it was time to go for a walk. Now I just step outside my door and put the trash in our bin so it's not so fun for her anymore (though a lot more fun for me!).

I tend to stop at the mailbox when I'm driving, so walking her to the mailbox hasn't become a new routine yet.

Maybe I need to stop picking it up when I'm driving and make mail pick-up her new walking routine?

In any case, this whole change of system has caused quite a stir in our neighborhood!