I finally cracked him!!!!

Those of you that have come to visit me know that we have a neighbor on one side of us that is an elderly widower. After living here for about 5 weeks I finally asked another neighbor what the deal was. I had never seen anyone come or go. He told me that our neighbor's wife passed away a couple of months before we moved in. He also told us that our neighbor is just a grumpy old man. Hmmmm....intriguing. After a couple of more weeks I laid eyes on the "old man." Since we didn't know his name we refered to him as the "old man." After about 4 months, my kids left a toy on his side of the front yard (which due to the hill, I didn't see) and he brought it over to me when I was in the garage. He didn't say anything, but he smiled....maybe not so grumpy after all. Then, in October, my mother-in-law asked me about one of the old man's plants, so I took the plunge. That's right, after 6 months of smiling and nodding, I went over and introduced myself to him one day while he was in his garage. However, he answered my question about his plant, but didn't recipricate with his name!!! So, it was still "old man." Moving on to January (9 months after moving here) I saw a woman about my age shoveling his driveway. Finally!!! I met his daughter (can't remember her name), but I found out his name.......wait for it......John!

All winter long, we shoveled his sidewalk. We have also picked up yard clippings for him. At the beginning of the summer, he asked me if I knew anyone who needed a crib mattress, since he had a practically new one to get rid of. I took care of that...no problem. A couple of weeks later I talked with him about some yard work that I was doing on the border of our two yards. After all of the ivy pulling I had piles and piles of it around. He asked what I was going to do with it because he had some branches to get rid of. So when I got rid of the ivy, Ben and I got rid of his branches for him also.

Now, 18 months later it happened!!!! He saw me outside, called me by name, and thanked me for getting rid of his branches!!!! Maybe the next step will be taking him cookies...in a couple of months. I wouldn't want to go to fast.