Your Mission: Be Neighborly

My neighbor Charley and his wife Gladys are my one hope for a neighborly relationship. They are the only neighbors I've interacted with more than once since moving into my house. I've tried to find ways to get to know my other neighbors, but no good opportunities ever seem to present themselves. So, I've set my neighborly sights on Charley, a retired Marine who may or may not be the president of the local NRA, and Gladys, who hasn't ever said a word to me but I figure the two are a package deal.

About a month ago, Chad borrowed a ladder from Charley to fix my leaky roof. When he returned the ladder, Charley gave him a jar of homemade pickled peppers in a sign of good will and overall neighborly-ness with the stipulation that we needed to give the jar back. Well, just last week as I finished off the peppers, it hit me - the returning of the jar was my opportunity to win Charley and Gladys over. The way I saw it, if they would appreciate getting their empty jar back, certainly they would appreciate getting a full jar back even more.

So, yesterday, I filled the jar with the fruits of the season: candy corn and peanuts. I even affixed a little thank you label. Then, tonight I laid in wait, clutching the jar, ready to ambush them with kindness. I kept a constant watch, peeping through my blinds every few minutes to see if their lights were on, but alas, there was no sign of life across the street whatsoever. Once I thought I caught a glimmer of something, but it turned out to just be the lights from my house reflecting in their windows. Bummer. Eventually, I gave up my watch for the night, but I haven't given up my quest. I'll return to my post tomorrow night and the day after that and the day after that and so on and so forth - I won't rest until I've returned their jar and succeeded at building that neighborly relationship! :-)