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Neighbor Man

Love your neighbor as yourself. I've heard loving certain neighbors, can be some of the hardest people to love. Maybe that's the point. I have always tried to be kind to the neighbor, give him goodies every Christmas, wave at him on the road, talk to him when needed. I consider myself a good neighbor. Out in the country you can go miles in between homes and that is one of the greatest parts of living in the country, isolation and privacy. Our neighbor's home is directly across the driveway and is in view out every window to the east. When we dine, or wash the dishes, my view is his home. He is like a little worker ant busily working in his driveway every chance he gets. His driveway does not look any better from the first day he started working on it some 4 or 5 years ago. He rakes, he sweeps, he harrows, he chops, he spreads, he scatters his rocks day in day out. His back is crooked and hunched, yet he keeps going. I have never in all my life seen anyone spend so much time with rocks. If it is above 50 degrees he is shirtless and he is a very old man. He is an animal lover so that is always his favorite thing to talk about and he talks to the animals more than us. He addresses them and carries on a conversation. He has an unusual amount of trash for a single man. I am curious how that is. We are a family of 5 and have one dumpster that holds two regular trash canisters. We set that out each week for the trash man. The neighbor will have between 5 and 7 regular trash canisters set out each week! He has over a dozen vehicles, cars, vans, trucks. He gets one out and drives it for the week, some he just takes down the road a mile and comes back. He rotates his vehicles regularly. He has three of the same make and model in blue, red, and yellow. One day he drive the blue one, the next it is red, and so on. He has over a dozen vehicles that he drives. He has a lot of vehicles for one man. His driving has always concerned me, he goes flying down the road in his little van. I fear for my kids safety. Jake drives his truck often on these roads and is starting to drive tractors down the road and during hay season large round bale trailers. Luke drives the gator and 4 wheeler from place to place on the road sometimes too. Over this summer there were a couple instances for concern. In a matter of a couple days he was flying up the road just as Luke was about to pull out in front of him and then Jayden was hauling the Bloomer and met him on the road. She said she got over and slowed way down to pass. The neighbor sped up and flew past her in the middle of the road nearly taking her side mirror and going so fast he was fish tailing. It scared Jayden and she even thought he would hit her. That angered me, so and I decided it was time to confront the man. My mama bear was kicking in and I went straight over for a chat. My anger leads me to have the courage to face someone, however I never approach anyone with anger. I was calm and explained the situation and my concern. I basically told him I was concerned for my kids safety and his. I just wanted him to slow down and be more cautions. This was not received well at all! First he gave me an awful excuse, which told me he was guilty and admitting he was wrong. He told me he had an important letter that had to be to the post office before it closed and was in a hurry to get it there and that he was really angry about the letter needing to be there that day. Ok so he was angry and in a hurry, so to him that justified his actions. Ugh. Then he coward in like a child who had just gotten a spanking and was going off to pout. He started away stomping and in a hurry saying he was going to help Jake pay for another dog, since he lost his little dog, but now he wasn't so sure. Wow, he was acting like a child too. I then apologized and told him I didn't mean to upset him I just kindly was asking him to be more aware on the roads and cautious. He never once apologized but turned and walked away. From that day on he won't look in our direction if he is outside or on the road. He purposely avoids us if we are outside and doesn't wave. One day I was headed to the mailbox and he saw I was out so drove in his back driveway and hid behind the trees until I went back to the house, then he hurried into his driveway and house. In December, I took him his usual Christmas treats and he was very short, grumpily said thank you, took them and walked away. I guess he is going to hold onto this one. I guess no forgiveness, actually I thought he should apologize to me, but I have moved on and don't really care. Some people have a way of turning things, so it is somehow my fault he almost drove my kid off the road. The ultimate message of the gospel we share and teach is forgiveness. That is what pastors preach. Did I mention he is a pastor?

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