Neighborhood

There's a whiffle ball in my yard. It's not mine. I have no idea who it belongs to, but that's ok. Some evening this week its rightful owner will undoubtedly come and collect it. My neighborhood is great. For those of you who haven't been here (you need to visit!), it's a pretty small collection of relatively new houses. There are 22 or 23 houses in the entire development, and we were the 4th ones to move in, if I remember correctly. So yes, we know everyone. We know the children and the dogs, the cars and the social habits of all our neighbors. It's quite nice, actually. Sometimes I feel like we're in a movie, or a TV show from the 70's.

Take yesterday evening for example. We went out before dinner to say hi to our neighbor, and to offer him a pina colada. His younger son offered me a chair, since I was holding Audrey. Soon, all the children between the ages of 7 and 15 were in the yard playing. What a nice, and somewhat rare scenario! Children, playing outside, together, with nothing but a ball and some old tennis shoes (acting as goal posts, of course). At one point, James took Audrey in for a snack and clean pants. Of course, this is when the children needed another player for their game. "Awww,...where's Mr. Heskin? We need Mr. Heskin!" I looked at them and confidently said, "I'll play....uhh....err....what are we playing?" They put me in as goal for their version of handball. I don't know, maybe it was the correct version of handball. Doesn't matter, it was fun. Nothing quite like playing, as a soon-to-be 3o year old, with 7 and 8 year olds who can put you to shame to make you feel great! As I stood in the goal (aka between two old sneakers), many thoughts ran through my head.
1) I'm sure glad my leg healed well so I can play these crazy games in flip-flops on wet grass without worrying.
2) I'm sure glad Audrey will have such a good neighborhood to grow up in.
3) I'm so out of shape, whew!

About that time, Mr. Heskin (ha ha, I still think it's funny that the children all call him Mr. Heskin. But wait, I'm Mrs. Heskin,....) came back out with Audrey and my teammates were glad that we could swap. Hmmm, maybe my handball skills need some honing? Anyway, it was nice to be reminded of how lucky we are to live in such a great place with such wonderful people surrounding us.