I am GOBSMACKED

[MoonCat]

So before I got home today, a neighbor came by and asked my sister if he could help us out by mowing the front lawn (which I was going to do tonight anyway but I would have had to use my weedwacker as my mower is a piece of junk).

And...he also told her that he understands "all the negativity on this street" and that he, like us, has been a target of that attitude. He looked around while saying it and sis could tell which houses in particular he was likely referring to.

He told her that some people around here call themselves Christians but don't live up to it. Now, my sisters and I are pagans but we have no problem with people of other religions.

He was being NICE and NEIGHBORLY, something that is in short supply around here.

I'm stunned. I thought he was one of the negative ones, himself, but I haven't had much chance to talk to him in the ten years we've lived here. Now I know that certain people on this street don't have everyone else fooled, especially the nasty old woman who thinks she's the matriarch of the block.

[Trixie]

Could've been he might have been negative because everyone else was and probably noticed you not being a part of all the nonsense going on with everyone else and decided to see if you really were nice.

It's always a welcome surprise when people do things nice for us. A couple years ago some of my neighbors shoveled my car out from a big snowstorm. Actually they were done with it by the time I put my coat on and got outside with my own shovel. A little while later some other neighbors came out and I let them borrow my shovel to get their own car out. Warm and fuzzy feelings all around.

[EricKei]

I thought he was one of the negative ones, himself, but I haven't had much chance to talk to him in the ten years we've lived here.

Ya never know. I have often found that the most "negative" people of them all are the ones who are incapable of idenfitying that negativity in themselves. In other words, it's everyone else who's the asshole.

On the other hand, he could be a genuinely cool guy. Could be worth giving him the benefit of the doubt.

[MoonCat]

He also plowed out my driveway one time during the winter. Unasked. We don't have a car but I try to at least clear enough space for the paper carrier and the mail carriers, so that was nice. I'm not getting any younger and snow-shoveling is a major stress on the body, so I wasn't able to keep up as well as I used to.

For him to come over here, offer to help out with something, and give an unsolicited opinion on the busybodies and self-appointed Guardians of All That is Right is a huge thing. Next time I see him I will make a point of thanking him personally.

[MoonCat]

He did it again. Sis didn't even hear it, but I noticed when I got home from work. Must be mowing in stealth mode.

[Aragarthiel]

We have a HUGE empty field behind our property that the neighbors back there mowed every week with their giant noisy tractor, and always at night (the tractor had headlights). One day we noticed we hadn't heard them in a while, looked out back...

THEY HAD A NEW TRACTOR. It's been a year and we haven't heard a thing from them.