OT: Merry Yule-tide Season

[Billy]

This holiday time year is supposed to be filled with happy people baking cookies, wrapping presents, and spending time with seldom seen relatives.

Yesterday morning, one of my neighbors blew his brains out. I don't know all his problems, but about 3 weeks ago his cat was poisoned, and then he stopped going to work.

What makes this more poignant for me is that three years ago another neighbor, an old widow lady caught pneumonia for lack of fire wood. She apparently was too proud to ask for help. She died of her pneumonia.

Like most people, I've thought about what I could have done different to change both outcomes.

Neighbors would have been happy to provide fire wood, if they had known, and maybe the neighbor across the street just needed to know that he had someone he could talk to.

I'm relating these stories, hoping that you may notice someone that may need help, and ask them if they might not care to share a cup of tea with them (or something stronger). There may be nothing wrong, and they look at you like a nosey person, but that is a small price to pay for trying to make the world a better place.

Merry Yule-tide Season, or whatever you are doing.

[Frank]

Happy Harmonica ;)

[EVP MAN]

Neighborhoods have really changed from what they were years past. Now days you can live right next to someone for ten years and not even know their name. I try to be friendly with all my neighbors and they seem friendly to me also. I have noticed that it takes some neighbors especially new ones awhile before they are friendly in return. Just takes some people a bit longer to get to know you I guess. I do live in a smaller town and think that also makes a big difference. The pace of life is much slower than in a big city where people are rushing around all over the place and don't want to take the time to get to know their neighbors or even bid them the time of day when passing on the street. Then you always seem to have one mean guy in the neighborhood. The guy who yells at the kids for riding a bike on his sidewalks. LOL I found a good way to break the ice is to offer the neighbors a few fresh tomatoes out of my garden in the summer :)

Rich

[Billy]

Where we live is typical California sprawl. It's an unincorporated town that spreads out in a random fashion except for a few small housing tracts which seem out of place here. Fortunately, we're in the forest, and even though we have many neighbors, because of the trees on our 3 lots, we have the illusion of privacy.

We have a one-way street that loops up from the main regional road, and then loops back down again. Because it is a narrow lane, during the summer we get people promenading back and forth walking their kids, or dogs, or just trying to keep their cardiologists happy, and it is a convenient way to meet people.

Kids yelling and dogs barking are, to me, just part of the areas charm. It sounds good. We know the other old timers on the hill, and our immediate neighbors (except for the house that is rented by the room), and if I need a hand with something, there always seems someone free to help.

About 5 years ago, we had a particularly productive garden and we were able to give away a lot of our gardens production. We have a pot next to our front gate where we would put the extra veggies. It works with extra starts that we've germinated to. Hopefully, 2011 will be another good year and we can share our harvest again.

Hope you are having a real cool Yule ;O)

?Feliz Navidad! Buon Natale! Joyeux Noel! Frohliche Weihnachten! usw

[Brooklyn1]

You'd be lucky if neighbors are neighborly, don't expect them to become your friends.

Nowadays they'd more likely think your produce is tainted, well not really but they do think you have some ulterior motive that they'll never be able to repay because that's how a lot of people are these days, they're takers and users, they have no qualms about asking to loan them your stuff or do their tasks but they don't own anything or have any way they can help you. I've had three new neighbors move nearby during the past two years that I welcomed to the neighborhood, they wanted me to mow their lawns (what lawns, just brush and hidden boobytraps) but didn't even offer to buy the fuel. I have more than enough of my own tractoring to do, they can buy their own. I'm lucky that my next door neighbor has all his own stuff, we get along fine, we are neighborly and always help each other when needed but we're not friends, we don't get into each other's personal beeswax nor do we socialize. However when I grew up in Brooklyn it was a different planet, everyone on the block knew each other intimately, watched/fed each other's kids, adults played cards, went out to dinner, movies, ate at each other's homes often. I think looking back now that a lot had to do with the fact that women were housewives, they worked in the home and saw to all the social events. Now everyone works, people are far more competitive and wary, it's survival of the fittest. Nowadays the most neighborly/friendly folks get is if they meet a few email contacts on the net who live thousands of miles away... and then you need to be very careful, many are not who they say they are... early on I got burned a few times, I learned. Also everyone has a different definition of "friend"; so many consider every acquaintence their friend, if they have the person in their phone book that alone qualifies them as a dear friend.... I believe that if someone acquires as many friends in a lifetime as fingers on one hand they are lucky.