love the library’s front window
‘love your neighbor’
‘you’re all neighbors.’
—
‘being a good neighbor is an art which makes life richer.’
-gladys taber, american author
happy belated Canada Day
to my friendly neighbors upstairs in the north
sorry I missed it
but as you might have heard
we’ve had a lot going on
downstairs here in the south
I decided to paddle over
right across the detroit river
from michigan to canada
rather than drive through our border
to say thanks for everything, eh?
—
‘the happiest people i know are people who don’t even think about being happy.
they just think about being good neighbors,
good people.
and then happiness sort of sneaks in the back window while they are busy being good.’
-harold s. kushner
—
photo credit: google images
once again, i love the advice/warning/humor posted on my local nextdoor page:
‘As anyone may be traveling east on Ann St. and crossing N. Division… be suuuuper careful! In the morning the sun is blazing right into one’s eyes, and equally, throughout the day, there’s tons of traffic, slower paced pedestrians, fast paced bicyclists in a dedicated bike lane and a jog in the road. I even saw a person on a unicycle in a traffic lane yesterday! It is one hellacious level of “Frogger”! 🐸🚗”
—
“if you can’t be a good example, be a terrible warning.”
-jennifer cruise
—
art credit: archive arcade
foghorn leghorn of television fame
and yet another wonderful nextdoor post on my neighborhood site:
Did you have a chicken missing? We have a Leghorn chicken who appeared in our back yard this morning. She is now in our coop with our three, However, we really don’t need or want another chicken so if she is yours, please message me to arrange a time to come and collect her. We have marked her feet with a purple antiseptic so we can identify which one is yours.
Posted in Lost & Found to The River District
—
“i dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives.”
-ralph waldo emerson
image credit: warner brothers animation
and for yet another time
i’ve had food delivered to me
that i hadn’t ordered
some have had addresses, some have not
and i was very tempted….
called the delivery service on the bag
they conference-called us both
hungry guy and his girlfriend came over
told them i almost ate them
they were thankful and told me i should have
not sure why i keep getting people’s food
all at different addresses
from different sources
i’ve decided to embrace it
as a unique way to get to know my neighbors.
—
“the pleasure lies not in the cookies, but in the pattern the crumbs make when the cookies crumble.”
-michael korda
a wonderful community initiative
happened in a nearby neighborhood
when they got together and purchased a ‘snow buddy’
anyone who is at least 18 can train and sign up
to take a turn clearing the sidewalks
each time it snows
all are welcome to take a shift
anytime i’ve seen someone
out in the snow buddy
they are always smiling
i’ll bet the whole neighborhood is smiling.
“summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.”
– george r.r. martin
i am endlessly fascinated by the postings i find on my neighborhood nextdoor site:
the one about the wild turkeys holding a woman at bay in her driveway
then her warning to others, after she escaped unscathed to the car,
as she last saw them headed down the road looking for other victims like a street gang
the one complaining about kids running through his yard instead of staying on the path
the one who reported the tiny pet turtle who ‘ran’ away from her yard
and on and on.
then there was my favorite:
it was a long chat chain that began when someone relocated here from the uk and was looking for a store that sold weet bix. the response/comment section continued on for months, with neighbors offering suggestions of where to find different flavors and sizes of it, who had the best prices, adding in images of artwork made with weet bix, weet bix jokes, weet bix gifs, weet bix logo clothing, balanced towers of weet bix, opinions about weet bix, bowls of weet bix, people sharing their u.k. memories……it was absolutely brilliant, and even included a site administrator who couldn’t take it anymore, trying to wind it up at one point, summarizing it by listing the previously suggested stores, only to have it start up again, people telling her just stop reading it if she was over it, but they were having a ball, leading to it win our ‘best post of the year,’ due to it’s refusal to end, and for the enthusiasm level with which the neighborhood embraced this, rising to the occasion in this ongoing quest to find and celebrate everything weet bix. i loved it. (in the spirit of the chat chain, this may be the longest run-on sentence/paragraph/rambling explanation ever)
happy national neighbor day
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“the curiosity of the neighbors about you, is a tribute to your individuality, and you should encourage it. ”
-quentin crisp