Looking out for your neighbors

[Birdie]

My husband tried to shovel our elderly neighbor's driveway once right after we moved in. She politely thanked him but asked him not to do it again because she actually enjoyed doing it.

I've also corralled our nextdoor neighbor's dogs a few times and picked up large limbs from another neighbor's yard because she's older and going through cancer treatments.

[pixy0stix]

We're one of the emergency medical contacts for our neighbor next door. My dh actually broke into her house one time because she didn't come out to say hi to us, and we figured something was wrong (she had fallen and couldn't reach the phone). (We have a key to her house now.) We do various other things for our neighbors, and know who they all are.

We do have new neighbors who are very stand-offish, and don't seem to understand that they've moved into a neighborhood where at least people say hi to each other.

[pixy0stix]

My dh encounters dogs on roofs all the time. LOL! It's actually pretty common.

[Wallflower]

I've slowly been learning how to fit into a friendly neighborhood after years in apartments and condos where it seems like you barely knew your neighbors.

I've done for neighbors:
Neighbor 1, across the street, will leave his garage door open sometimes and I've called to let them know.
Neighbor 2, next door, had surgery and was laid up for a little while. We had a small snow and I cleared their driveway. I also cooked a meal for them, right after the surgery. Oh, and I raked their roof when we had a bigger snow.
Neighbor 3 is a single woman, like me, and we generally keep an eye on each other's house and let each other know when it looks like something is up.

Done for me:
Right after I broke my ankle, it snowed and Neighbor 1 cleared my driveway and walk. (I hadn't yet set up the team to do it for me.) I've offered to help him, but he enjoys it and says it's his exercise. (He's 80 if he's a day.)
When I sealed my driveway and couldn't park on it for 2 days, Neighbor 2 let me park in their driveway. (It's designed with a space so I wasn't in their way.)
Neighbor 3 just dropped off some fresh corn last week from the farm stand.
When I lived in my condo, I locked myself out on the balcony. I had to flag down a neighbor, borrow his phone, call information because I couldn't remember my bestie's phone number (who memorizes phone numbers now???), then call her.

[aurora]

Aug 22, 2019 9:20:35 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

My dh encounters dogs on roofs all the time. LOL! It's actually pretty common.

I have never seen this! Now I all glad we don't have windows onto a roof.

[jamaicam]

There is a lot of communal childcare/sharing of wine in my community! Eg from this week - one of my neighbor's nanny had a family issue and my neighbor couldn't get out of work to let her leave so her nanny dropped her baby off at my boys with my boys and my nanny.

When I go away for a few days, another neighbor feeds my cat. We jump start each others' cars when necessary. Borrow missing ingredients for meals.

There's a 'X Community parents' whatsapp group so there are sometimes things on there (eg my rabbit escaped - anyone seen him? and we'll send the kids to go look). Or My kid has grown out of these clothes if anyone is interested.

It's a gated community of about 40 houses and 10 apartments, and since it was built 30 years ago, it's had a reputation for being very family friendly so it's to be expected.

[downtoearth]

We do a lot of these in our neighborhood - move packages off porches for neighbors and text to let them know, catch dogs and return them, all got together to help a dog on the corner who hadn't been fed/watered for 2 days due to a forgetful dog sitter, watched a neighbor's child in the middle of the night so they could go have another baby (couldn't get ahold of their planned sitters/grandparent), shovel walks, move garbage cans in/out for people, mowed a lawn, watch each other's children, bring food to each other, have wine/beers together, watch pets for each other when out of town, etc.

I have awesome neighbors!

[livinitup]

The biggest neighborly thing I’ve done is accept a request from a parent to drop their child at our house in the morning to ride the bus with our daughter. He left for work too early to put her on the bus and before school care was expensive and unwanted by the daughter. I said yes, and she joined us in the mornings, sometimes 45 minutes before the bus came.

It was an imposition but I chalked it up to feeling like “it takes a village”. And the daughter was lovely.

[Nonny]

Our neighbors across the street, who have since moved, helped me hide a truck I bought for my H for Christmas. It was a project vehicle my BIL and I got him for cheap off Craigslist, and the neighbor's have two lots with a big shop in the second lot, so they stored an broken down Chevy LUV for me for I think two weeks. They also shut our garage doors for us a couple of times. Our old system had a problem where every time the power went out, when it came back on the doors would open. It happened once when we had to leave town for Christmas after the massive Hanukah Eve windstorm, and if they hadn't the doors would have been open for days with us not home.

During that major windstorm our neighborhood was without power for 9 days, and there were a lot of extension cords running between the houses with generators and the neighbors without.

Our next door neighbors once went around letting everyone know of the bear and her cubs wandering around the neighborhood. But I think he was really just wanting to talk about how he got to see the bears. LOL!

All we've really managed to do for people is catch the occasional runaway dog.

[jln]

My husband mows the lawn if he knows a neighbor will be out of town a while and doesn't have yard service.

[TBM]

Our neighbors all text each other if something is amiss (car window/hatch open, etc.), or return a loose dog. We all help eachother out with whatever someone needs.

After a hurricane everyone clears the street of debris and most people help each other clear yards. Our next door neighbors had stayed with family the last time, and DH and I had finished clearing their driveway just as they drove up that morning. We always let them plug into our house when the power is out, since we have a whole house back up generator.