Saturday morning I mowed the lawn, sort of.
I lugged my trusty electric lawnmower out of the garage and went for it. Sadly, the battery is dying, and has been for over a year. I tried. I really did. I even kept raising the blade so that it wouldn't have to struggle so much. Sadly, it just stopped. Outright stopped.
Just before that, a man who'd been doing yard work two houses over came walking up to my chain link fence and offered his push mower. He also offered to help me figure out how to thread my weed eater...and when he couldn't, he used his to trim what I couldn't reach with the mower.
Turns out he's one of the sons of the woman who lived at the house two doors down. She passed away a few weeks ago, and he and his brothers have been keeping up the yard while they decide what to do with the house.
He gave me some history of my house. He remembers the two giant tulip poplars in the front yard (the biggest trees on the street) as small trees. He remembers when the original owners built the garage. He has no idea, though, who installed a shower in my laundry room...then turned the shower stall into a toilet stall...that is non-functional at the moment. While we were in the laundry room, he leaned on the dryer, laughed, and fixed the wobble.
He said, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way. You seem like a very self-sufficient woman, but you need a man around." I agreed with him and told him I was working on it. I didn't take offense. I do agree with him. I'd love to have a man in my life, not to be my fix-it guy, but to be my partner. To be each other's partner. To fix things together. To dine together. To laugh together. And all the other stuff.
After he left, I finished working in the garden and pulled a few more weeds, got cleaned up, ate some lunch and went to the hardware store...where they threaded my weed eater. Much later, I heard from a friend I'm meeting in North Carolina. Someone I'd love to have in my life.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I really like my neighbors, and my neighborhood.
No comments:
Post a Comment