It's great to have groovy neighbors!

In a long ago post entitled: I've been crying all day, that must be why I have so many watermelons, I tell the tale of how my good neighbors who grow things, share them with us on a regular basis.  In that particular post, I got double sharing because I sort of had a mini nervous breakdown in front of one of my good neighbor's by accident. He sells home grown produce and was compelled to leave me a melon. (No charge)  Word spreads fast in these parts, so it wasn't too long (mere hours) before another neighbor and his wife felt we needed still more watermelon healing, and left another melon, as large as the first one.... Then by Jove, yet another one appeared not long after the second one!! Sounds made up right?  It's not.  Sounds funny right? It actually works though!  How can you stay blue when your neighbors are drowning you in melons?? (Food is love, right?)  Well, it is in these parts anyway.  So, I was lifted and cheered at all the watermelon love got that day.

If you're a watermelon lover, we actually have a festival wherein we pay homage to this most refreshing and generous summertime delicacy.  Seriously, I've posted about it before. It's called the Monticello Watermelon Festival or something like that.  If you care to, you can read about that here.  (It's not nearly as surly as the Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival, which you can read about here.  It's just good sweaty Florida fun?)  Oh well, the hat is tipping to my favorite blogging  barrister, the infamous, White Rabbit. Who, if he wanted to, could easily get a job in comedy too! But I digress.  

This post is about neither watermelons, nor festivals... it is about groovy neighbors.  Ok~ so, I come home today to my first watermelon "drive-bye" of the season.  This is a custom where somebody brings you by a melon and your not home, so they leave it as a surprise on your back steps... Just waiting to greet you when you get home.  (see above) 

Harley and I had just returned home from a shopping stint at the Organo shopping co-op.  (Where I got to taste REALLY GOOD organic pale ale... that shit is strong! And it was poured by none other than Mr. Billy, of BOH fame.)   Anyway, we (Harley and I) are going to a BBQ pool party tomorrow and I'm in charge of the fruit salad you see.   Therefore, I bought 3, count 'em 3 melons:  One mini watermelon aka "sugar baby", one ginormous Cantaloupe and one not so ginormous Honey dew melon.  So as I mentioned, we came home only to find the first 2010 "drive-bye" melon, a biggun' at that...(much like the one pictured above)   It was lovingly perched next to a "Vote for so and so for County Commission" door hanging and a pencil to match.  The door hanging had a red magic marker exclamation point on it!  Funny, no?  Ok now, while I am feeling so much love and am tickled beyond words, I have no place to put this bad boy.  My fridge is one of those way too cramped side by sides.  (sigh).  Today was all about the melons I guess. :-)  When in doubt, call Ms Moon, another sweet neighbor, to ask if she would like the melon. (They are always partying across the fence dontcha know!)  Not really, they just have a large family who love each other so they tend to have more foot traffic at their place.  But nope, not this weekend, and they already have a baddass melon of their own!  Good Lord, what are the chances??!  Pretty good, I guess...BUT... THEN she says, "Hey, why don't you just put it in our extra fridge in the garage?" Which is affectionately referred to as the garagemahal.  Yes, they have a name for their garage, and if you've ever seen it, you'll know why.  The homeless could find shelter in that thing... and food too! I KNOW there is a post about the GMH over at BOH somewhere..  Anyway, so yay!  Problem solved.  And, if the Moons manage to blow through their melon or if any of the kids need one, they have one.  It is likely I'll forget about it... It's just the damn community melon now.  Just plain out of my hands... All I know is, one neighbor gave me a beautiful melon, & another is refrigerating it for me!  

How cool is that? Cool, very, very cool.

I'm just happy it is not going to waste away on my counter. 

Ms Moon is always giving us home made goodies like zuppa, home grown veggies, fresh eggs and etc...  Not to mention she helped usher Harley into the world... Need I say more?

I also have other good neighbors.  The across the street neighbors occasionally give Harley groovy hand me down clothes and toys, the daddy fixed Harley's guitar when he snapped the neck off walking through a doorway with it, (daddy's a musician), and one of their kid's even cut our grass once... AND...they've invited us to swim in their fancy pool!  Then I have more  neighbors, catty corner cross the street, that are awesome too!  They have also become good friends of ours.  Their daughter feeds our kitty and loves on her when we are away.  She also babysits for Harley sometimes and he adores her.  Sometimes we go over to play and she is so great with him it almost makes me cry.  So, I am surrounded by coolness AND grooviness on all sides... I LOVE that!  And am so grateful for it.  And not just because what they do for us/with us... It's because of who they are.  They're real and they're caring, and because of who we all are, we feel like part of a larger family.  A real community.  Like when I was growing up. I can't express what a comfort & joy it is.

It's very important, having good neighbors. (especially in the country) Not many people luck into a situation like we have, and I am fully aware of that fact.  There is so much more I could say about all of these fun-tabulous characters, but I am going to have to break this up, like with the vacation post... Too much.   Thanks neighbors, we sure do love you, and appreciate you.

Have some blessings, and pass the melon will ya?
Happy 4th to all.  xo pf