so we’ve lived in this house for what, about three years now? and yesterday i finally met my neighbor. i occasionally see him around town on his bicycle (with a big poof of wavy graying hair and a mustache, he’s not hard to spot) and i’ve seen him out mowing his yard, but i’ve never really said much more than hello as i pass by his house on a walk. (and he has never really said much more to me, either.)
yesterday, i went out for a run. as i started off down my block, i stopped to look more closely at a piece of curb furniture that had been catching my eye for a few days. i’d never stopped to look at it, convincing myself that it wasn’t really all that nice, but when i actually went up to it, opened drawers and doors, i realized that it was actually a pretty nice piece (if you could get past the shiny metal legs which give it kind of an 80’s office furniture look). it appears to be made out of wood (not laminate) and it’s very heavy. we’d been looking for a new thing (console? credenza? sideboard? whatever…) to have inside our front door where we dump the mail and keep all of our spare change, cat toys and bicycle accoutrements to replace the piece we’ve been using up until now (mr. happy stuff’s childhood dresser which is… let’s just say it’s not in the modern style.). i’d been scanning through thrift stores with no luck (“well, it would be nice if i could find something retro modern with a wooden (not flimsy cardboard) back that would look attractive in case we ever want to put it in the middle of the room, and i don’t want to pay more than $20.” riiiiiight.) and the one we found at ikea the last time we were there ($200) was sold out. so here was this piece, for free and with an attractive wooden (not flimsy cardboard) back and headed towards the dump if i didn’t rescue it. (i think that’s the element of the story that most often gets me in trouble–the rescuing. this is a danger when you work with children’s books all the time. anthropomorphizing everything. i see the credenza-thing get all weepy-eyed and saggy as it sits rotting in the dump and thinking, “i used to help someone with filing their taxes and now i just have a ton of garbage on my head!”) i decided to continue my run. if it had been sitting there for the past 4 or 5 days it wasn’t going anywhere in the next 45 minutes. as i ran, i debated calling mr. happy stuff to see if he could come home for an early lunch and help me move it before i went to work, but decided that he probably wouldn’t be able to and that (once again) if it had been there for so long already, i shouldn’t get all panicky and “i need this right now!” on the situation and that if it did somehow elude my grasp then i’d just focus on the shiny 80’s legs and tell myself it wasn’t all that great. i had myself so convinced to just wait until the next morning when mr. happy stuff had had a good night’s sleep and then we could rationally discuss the acquisition together and then inspect it and drag it back to our place that i didn’t even stop to look at it on the way back from my run. i went back in the house, started on a bowl of cereal and then saw the orange garbage truck pull into the business next door. normally, the garbage is collected on tuesdays (at least for residential locations) so this must be a special business/dumpster service to get twice a week collection. but then i started panicking. what if this was not only the business/dumpster service, but also the crunch-up-all-the-old-furniture-on-the-curb service that was finally making its rounds. did i miss my chance? did i let the piece sit for 5 days and then sacrifice it to the jaws of death by walking away from it 20 minutes ago? i shoved my half-eaten cereal back into the refrigerator and jogged back across the street to see if it was still there. it was. and as i passed my neighbor’s house, i saw him just going into the front door. this credenza is heavy. very heavy and kind of long and there was no way that i was going to get it home by myself. should i leave a note on it saying…. what? “i want this, don’t throw it away”? or “don’t send me to the dump, i still have life left in me”? should i leave my name on the note? would that deter other curb farmers (not necessrily my intent–i just didn’t want it to go to the dump.) –and was that a breach of curb farming etiquette? i decided to ask my neighbor for help. i approached his front door, knocked on it and when he came to the door i explained the situation (much more succinctly than i just did here) and he walked across the street to look at the piece of furniture with me. on the way over, i introduced myself and he told me his name. now, i know my neighbor! (or at least his name) he agreed that it was an extremely heavy piece and confessed that he had a bad back, but offered the use of his dolly. we removed the drawers and after flipping it on end, we got it on the dolly and the two of us managed to maneuver it back to my house and into the carport. i dragged the random smaller pieces back by myself. it’s waiting there now to get approval from mr. happy stuff. if he doesn’t like it, i’ll just call the local thrift store to come pick it up (and add a few more things i’ve been meaning to get rid of to make it worth their trouble). it rained last night, so i have to say that i’m glad i didn’t wait until this morning to get it out of the elements.
my neighbor feels less like a stranger to me now. i hope he doesn’t think badly of me for waiting to get to know him until i wanted something from him. but somehow this feels better than if the first time i spoke to him was about our property line or something. i told him that i liked his bumper sticker that says, “i’d rather be here, now” and he told me (not in response to my comment–later in the conversation) that he gets very puzzled by cars that turn in off the main road, drive down our block and then back out to the main road. very puzzled. it just really puzzles him. he says it happens all the time and it’s very puzzling. yeah, probably won’t be inviting him over for dinner parties. but it is nice to know his name.
