Winter Wonderland

Mean Neighbor made no appearance this weekend while the Foilkids and friends made snow forts, had snowball fights, and used moving boxes as sleds to slide down the little hill in front of the picnic area. It snowed from Friday night until Sunday morning early (1 or 2 a.m.), and we had close to 2 feet of snow on the ground.

I have run so many dryer loads of socks, snow pants, mittens, hats, etc. I don't even want to think of my electric bill. And the school system cancelled first Monday, then Tuesday, and then today, providing my offspring with many more opportunities to get snow covered and delighted. And not a peep out of MN. Probably already on Christmas travels, but one can hope that the idea occurred that fussing about kids playing in snow probably wouldn't win the Good Neighbor award.

I'm not sure how MN moved into my complex, because my neighbors are otherwise almost uniformly nice and considerate (OK, I've trained them well), although there is one other exception, which might just be a cultural thing.

In some parts of Boston and other points north, it's a custom that once a city dweller has shovelled out a parking space, that person is entitled to save the space by leaving a lawn chair there. No one else parks in that space (This only works in residential-only neighborhoods, like Southie -- I've never seen this tried in Back Bay or in Harvard Square. It's a class thing as well as a neighborhood thing. In the Boston/Cambridge area, saving a parking space with a chair is pretty much a blue collar thing.) without risking a fight or slashed tires.

On my way to the bus stop, I walked past a chair left in a parking space. No-one else has done this is my neighborhood. Mainly that's because several neighbors were out Sunday a.m. helping other neighbors dig out. I was digging out my car when the father of two of TG's friends stopped by with a large economy size snow shovel and proceeded to finish shovelling out my car: it had taken me a half an hour to get it about 1/4 done. He finished the job in about 20 minutes. And then moved about the neighborhood doing the same for others. Fortunately, I had a stock of firewood (gift from another neighbor) and gave him a load for a fire in his fireplace. Several other neighbors were doing the same as the Good Neighbor Guy (and while he's married, he's got a nice trim build, so his good deed was also nice viewing) and everyone, self included was loaning shovels to neighbors without. Later in the day, when the kids were bored (If you're not a parent, you don't know how scary the sentence "Mama, I'm bored." really is.) I sent them off with shovels, brooms, and car scrapers to dig out cars that were still just sitting there.

So Neighbor-with-the-Chair, you just outed yourself as someone who only dug out one space in a neighborhood where the cultural norm is to take care of your neighbors, not set yourself in opposition to them. Oh well. Maybe NwtC and MN can hook up and move to an island where they're not part of the social compact.

Meanwhile, my complex has shoveled it's snow and has clean sidewalks, as does my employer, but last night I discovered, while trying to use the sidewalk along Rockville Pike in North Bethesda (don't ask) that the Boy Scouts of America couldn't be bothered to shovel their sidewalks (they weren't prepared?) and neither has the Temple Hill Baptist Church or the Bethesda Crest ("Luxury Townhomes from the low $1 millions) homeowners association. So they're in a three-way tie for the bad-neighbor-in-Bethesda award. Three days after a storm, I'll give a by to householders, as this was a mega-snowstorm, but big organizations and homeowners associations? Get off your backsides and shovel your sidewalks. Not everyone drives.

Fortunately, I'm back in my own, nice, caring for the neighbors neighborhood, getting ready to pack for the Christmas trip to New England. On my way to the bus, I'm checking out TG's snow fort.