When we moved into our house 9 years ago, our next door neighbors moved in about a month or two after us. Over these 9 years, we’ve had a really good neighbor relationship. We shared babysitting, watched each other’s pets when we went out town, traded cups of sugar when baking and even hung out for the occasional summer barbecue. We shared 4th of July and New Year’s Eve. We’d help them decorate their Christmas tree, and they’d come over to light the Hanukkah menorah with us.
When they told us they were moving to Texas, we were shocked. Nine years of memories are now just that – memories to package away in a hatbox of photographs. How sad!
They put their house up for sale a few months ago, and the moving truck came and took away all of their Tucson history in one fell swoop just a few weeks ago.
Yesterday, something big happened. There is now a “sold” sign on the house. We called our ex-neighbors, and they told us just tiny bits of information about our soon-to-be new neighbors. He’s an engineer. They have two young children. There is a long 45-day escrow. That’s it. That’s all we know.
Each time I have driven by that “sold” sign in the last 24 hours, I can’t help but stare at it. It has so many possibilities, and there is such an unknown eeriness to it. I can’t wait for the day when I can go next door with some fresh baked cookies or muffins to welcome the new neighbors to the neighborhood, and I hope so much they value the “neighbor” relationship as much as I do. There’s no way to know until we meet them.
My song of the day is from the Kinks’ front man, Ray Davies. When the Kinks broke up in 1996, Davies began a solo career. I really like his song “Next Door Neighbor,” and it gives me comfort to know that there’s someone else who cares about his neighbors as much as I do.