Meeting the Neighbors

Tony and I try to take a walk every day, at least once a day. This is not only good for the healing of my back, but also good for us to meet new people and enjoy being outside. The neighborhood we live in is perfect for taking a leisurely stroll, wandering around, making a quick trip to the library or store, as well as enjoying the array of houses and unusual characters that you run into.

We just returned from our first walk today. First stop, yard sale. I saw the sign on a post and had to go. We got a good deal on some very unique picture frames, two dollars for eight of them, and talked with a guy about his work history and how much he loves working at Costco.

On our way to the yard sale we passed something strange... next to one of the houses is a huge open lot (which is rare to see down here) and towards the back of it there were a group of people building something. On our walk last night, we noticed the same people had turned their cars and trucks to face this thing that they were building to light it up. My curiosity was certainly piqued. It was all I could to not run over to the back of the lot and ask what they were doing. I refrained, deciding it would turn out to be humiliating.

So on the way back from the yard sale, we noticed the people were now close to the sidewalk, and I took full advantage of the situation to ask what they were building. One of the guys coolly replied, "A water slide." Sweet. I asked if it was for kids, he replied, "Yeah, a bunch of kids" pointing around the circle of adults standing there.

He then introduced himself and told us about the party tomorrow. It is for all of the people that live within one block of him and will be catered with a bar. Sweet. His name is Rich and apparently they are planning on having about 400 people there tomorrow. I asked if they needed any help getting stuff finished and volunteered Tony to help.

I'm excited to check it out, a little nervous because we don't really enjoy parties, but this one sounds unique and definitely worth checking out. Hopefully it will give us a chance to have a good time and get to know some new people.

And as we were approaching our place, we saw Harold. He is this nice man that lives next door to us and his family has lived there for fifty some years. We had a nice conversation with him and headed inside after checking on our plants.

Events like these never happened in Jenison and are the very reason why we needed to get out of there. I am really enjoying this neighborhood, especially the people that make up the neighborhood.