So a couple of nights ago, our hot water heater stopped working. I did some "trouble shooting" and sort of tried to fix it, but I was admittedly afraid of anything involving natural gas (I mean, it is one thing to get burned a bit - but another thing to blow up the neighborhood). So, my neighbor Tim came over and we tried to light the pilot light and what not- without much luck. So we called the gas company, opened a couple of beers (which I owed him for his helping me move a pullout sofa into our house last weekend), and sat on the front porch to wait.
As we were chatting, we noticed that our other neighbor, Surain, came out of his house and was walking around his front yard looking for something. We strolled over, offered him a beer, and helped him look for a plastic, toy salt shaker that his three year old daughter "could not go to sleep without..." at around 8:30pm. I felt like I needed to find it, as it was Noah who was last playing with it that afternoon - in their front yard. We found the salt shaker, and sat around sharing water heater stories. Shortly thereafter, the gas company guy showed up. He replaced a part on the water heater, and was really interested in talking about deficit spending and public policy (it was almost strange, but really cool). Tim and I then called it a night.
I love this neighborhood, and I love living in a place where I feel like everyone is looking out for us. Now, it is time to bring another baby into this community. And I am so excited about having this child grow up in a place where he will be embraced - even if he just needs a salt shaker to sleep.
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