Following up from my grass-cutting confusion back in May (post is HERE.)
Thanks for all for suggestions - but we never bridged the language barrier, mostly because we have literally not seen the neighbor himself since before the lawn-cutting incident. I never thanked him face-to-face or even through his daughter.
The bottom line is that I ran out of time. I think an acceptable time frame for such thanks is fairly narrow - maybe two weeks, probably one. I was willing to give myself an extra week (three) but just never got around to it. I decided that I would just cut his grass when it got to be long.
The thing is that he has good grass for summers in our area - low to the ground and uses water to the best of its' ability. (read: doesn't get long, but stays green!) We, on the other hand, have a collection of different grasses. There must be three kinds of grass, and four kinds of weeds. 90% of the grass is less than 3 inches and we will get a strip that shoots up to over 12 inches in the course of a week!
So two weeks into June I cut my lawn - but his had hardly grown.
Two weeks after that there was FINALLY enough growth to cut his lawn - and mine again - so I had at it! After getting over the jealousy about how much greater his lawn is than mine, I felt like we were set - eye for an eye on the side of being good neighbors.
I never got a thank you, but I have no problem with that. My act was in response to his, it was my "thanks" and nothing more.
Until yesterday. It happened again. We went to a pool party and came home to the grass being cut again. What gives? I know that the one strip was getting long, but I was planning to cut it this afternoon.
Lucky for me, Mr. Neighbor, Mrs. Neighbor and their daughter were outside! They had just gotten daughter a new bike and all three were quite excited. I asked if he had cut our lawn, and he said yes. I shouted out a big "Thank You!" back.
Are we even?
He cut twice.
I cut once.
I thanked for the second cut.
I am a nice guy, but I don't think that I can keep up with a Battle of the Niceness for much longer. We don't get enough snow to count on two snow-shoveling jobs this winter, either!!
Maybe I should be preparing to hang his Christmas lights....
I say you're even. I cut your grass once just because, a thank you would be nice. I do it over and over without your asking? Not so much. I think it would be silly to do something like that and expect a thank you or return favor every time.
ReplyDeleteLOL
ReplyDeleteYou're good.
Says the gal who recently wrote a thank you note a year late. (And I have a stack of even older ones that I might never finish.)
But my negligence doesn't meant that I'm not thankful!
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