July 6, 2013 - Neighbors

Something about pulling out of my parents' driveway this morning triggered a wave of emotion inside of me.  For years, I have left their house to go back to school, leave for my home in another city, or go on an adventure.  Every time I would make sure that I swung by my grandparents' house and said goodbye to them as well.  I started doing that not long after my sister died in 1998, and if I ever forgot or didn't have time to stop in, I made sure to call them on my way or when I arrived at my next destination.  Today there was no one home to stop in and say goodbye to, and I realized that there never will be again.
The open door policy of my grandparents is unique in this day, but not unique in Putnam County.  There are many people who would think nothing of opening their home, making a meal, and halting everything they were doing if company dropped in.  It is so easy to think that whatever you have going on in your life is more important than taking time to build relationships with others, but more than likely, those relationships are going to be what is left when your busy-ness is over.  I am going to have to be a bit more careful about making sure that I am not walking around in my underwear and that my house isn't completely messy from now on because I expect people will drop in unannounced from time to time.  I might also need to stash a few "emergency pies" in the freezer to have for those guests.
Today the neighbor who we have lived across the road from for the past year stopped by unannounced and shot the breeze for a while in the living room with us.  She had collected all our mail the past week while we were gone and was delivering it and inquiring about our move.  We are going to miss the neighbors that we had in North Olmsted, as we had gotten to know them better in one year than I had in living 7 years in Indianapolis.

The house in Ohio

Clay packed up the u-haul with a bed and all the stuff that the movers wouldn't take so he can drive back for work tomorrow.  We ate Fat Heads takeout and brought the food over to the minister's house because they had a son 11 days ago and we wanted to bring them a meal and check out the boy.  Our families had just started feeling like we had a decent friendship, but now we will just watch each other grow old on Facebook and through my occasional trips to the Cleveland area for work.  Tonight we watched some Arrested Development on Netflix, which might be the last time we are able to stream video for a while, and went to bed together for the last time in North Olmsted.