Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?

Last night around 10PM the doorbell rang. It was a highway patrol man looking for anyone who knew anything about one of our neighbors. We couldn't help. The man next door never spoke to anyone. He waved if he was out picking up his trashcans the same time we were, but he never tried to connect. The state trooper stated he was searching for anyone who might know this man's next-of-kin because the man was in a motorcycle accident. The cop couldn't tell us if the man was alive or dead, but we assume that he must have been killed or at least listed in serious condition or the trooper wouldn't be looking for a friend or relative. But what got me was that none of us knew him. He had been to the neighbors on the other side before us and was going to the next neighbors after us and I can tell you all about any of them, but I didn't know the man next door. I knew that he was immaculate. We had made up stories about his life by the glistening of his interior garage. Within was a tribute to car racing -- the racing suit mounted spectacularly, the framed photographs of cars on the walls, black and white squares lined the floor and as when he drove into the garage, he drove in a really nice sports car with a loud engine and he covered it before he put the garage door down and disappeared into obscurity. Once we caught a peep into his house as we drove by and it too was impeccable. But the man lived alone. And so this blog is a tribute to him -- the man with a "rock garden" so he wouldn't have to worry with growing things, the man who was at one time probably a very up and coming race car driver, the man who disappeared at night and spoke only with the contractors who were upgrading his garage or tiling his driveway. Wherever you are, I pray peace and love follow you.

And this is the news from Arbuckle Creek, where the neighbors are neighborly, but only if you want them to be; where the children are not nearly as obnoxious as their senior counterparts, and where the gators will soon be entering mating season.