I understand that not everyone has great neighbors. I get that. Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" has a lovely and appropriate line, "Good fences make good neighbors." For some folks, I understand the sentiment. My friend has neighbor who makes great sacrifices. Not figuratively speaking, but literally speaking. They sacrifice animals. Seriously. It's legal as long as you eat them afterwards. Crazy.But we have neighbors who sacrifice themselves. Not literally, but they sacrifice time and comfort. Let me give you a "for example." On Saturday, just after catching my last redfish, I received a frantic call from Amy. It was a snake.
A little snake managed to get in between the screen and the office window. Not good. I was on the water, at least an hour away, so our only option was to call our neighbor Donna the Dragon Slayer. She is not scared of snakes. They are scared of her.
So Donna came over, in the rain, and killed that baby snake. We think it was a baby rattler, but Donna practically pureed it with the shovel. I really couldn't find any pieces.
So how about that for a neighbor, eh? Sure, I'll come over in the rain and kill the snake for you. For some, fences make good neighbors. For us, good neighbors are just good neighbors.
I give Donna high praise and put her up for "neighbor of the year." However, she's one of several great ones we have here in Groveland. I just got invited by another neighbor today to a beer-n-bonfire. Tough to beat.
I doubt that it's only Groveland that has such great neighbors. I would encourage you to get outside, take a walk, spend a little time in your front yard, and you might just find another Donna the Dragon Slayer living down the street from you. Maybe you can even "one-up" me with a better "neighbor brag." I doubt that, but its worth a try.
3 comments:
Geoff-
On Wednesday we had a four-foot long snake slithering up our sliding glass door. The girls and I just watched in with horror, knowing that our knight-in-shining armor (aka John) was many hours away. I emailed a picture of it to my own Dragon Slayer (aka Barb) to ask her if it was poisonous. She reassured me it was not. Next time I think there is a poisonous snake trying to climb in our window, I know that I can call either Barb or Donna and they'll come to our rescue. Thanks for the tip! :-)
Staci
During the summer we had one - even longer, I'm sure - INSIDE the house; no idea how he got in nor how long or where he'd been hiding.
Perhaps it was my shrieks when I saw him that made him slither under the fridge, then into the living room, where he coiled himself near the bookcase.
My own personal knight in shining armor/dragon slayer said, "You watch him while I [make an emergency pit stop.]" As though Mr. Snake - I'm sure it must have been a male ;) - would stay there because I was watching him, all the while trying to climb onto a chair!
With a broom the returned dragon slayer swept him out the door; GOOD RIDDANCE!
Yes, we can laugh about it now, but... And by the way, we were told it's good we didn't kill him because those snakes eat rats and other undesirable vermin.
Staci,
It's always good to have a back-up. I'll make sure we call Barb the Back-up if Donna is gone. Gosh I hate snakes. Yes I know they serve a purpose, but so does Broccoli and I hate that!
Anonymous,
That's crazy. I hope that never happens again to you and yours!
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