Thanking the neighbors

[Jim Saul]

I use the snow blower for the 7 houses near me and the street to keep it wide, then we gave all neighbors home made chocolates on Christmas eve.

[George Simmons]

friskybri wrote:

I like the way you think George. I need to make fun of them on a radio announcement.

It was an absurd situation. In 2005 and 2006 we both had static displays. (Yes, I put out about 20 times more lights, but it wasn't anything personal - I actually scaled down after moving here because this place has the smallest yard I've had since 1992.) In 2007 I had my static display and they didn't put out anything. Spring of 2008 I mentioned I was doing a synchronized display this year and they said nothing. Summer when I got the transmitter and tested it and made my rounds in the neighborhood again they said nothing. Fall when I started putting lights out they said nothing. Opening night they throw half a dozen sets of lights out, plug in their Mr. Microphone and call it a show.

Now I ask you, what are the odds that in a small town of 1400 people where no one has ever done anything like this before, that two people who live next to each other would independently of each other get the notion to do synchronized displays for the very first time the very same year? I suppose it's possible but it just doesn't pass my smell test.

We had people asking every single night "are the neighbors part of the display?" or "how come those lights don't blink to the music?" or "can't you get them to shut it off?". I honestly thought someone in their house would look out their window and say hmmm... But it didn't happen. It finally got to me so I just added this to an announcement, "And in answer to the questions that almost everyone asks, no the neighbors lights are not part of our synchronized display, and no, we don't know what they're thinking. We apologize for the distraction."

Might not have been the Christian or Christmas thing to do, but it is what it is and I'd do it the same way today. We/they got started off on the wrong foot the day we moved in when she complained about the radio being too loud. Not even a "hello new neighbor" - her opening remarks to Sharon were something like "can you turn that damn thing down?" Since then it's been a relationship of the occasional "how about this weather, eh?" Their brains work different than ours. We really don't give a crap... and I'm guessing neither do they. In 2009 they used the Mr Microphone inside and nothing outside, and then this year nothing outside and no sign of the Mr Microphone inside. (I'm guessing those tinny-sounding songs get tiresome in your living room after a while.)

So that's my tale. Not the Planet Christmas-approved way of handling things to be sure, but I did find it strangely gratifying. YMMV.