Stan

This isn’t a blog in tribute to the Eminem song by the same name but a blog about our neighbor across the street.

Stan is this little old man that lives in a small house across the street from us with his wife Lil and their dog (Its either Coco or Snuggles. Whichever one it is, then the other one was put to sleep sometime late last year. I think it had bad Cushings.)

Anyway,  Stan’s favorite pastime is to observe the going ons in the neighborhood and provide commentary on them. I know what he tells us so I can only imagine what he says about us to others.

When we first moved here, Stan and Lil greeted us and let us come into their house to enjoy a brief break from the heat in the AC. It was welcomed.

Since then, Stan visits us occasionally, doing small tasks and bringing us unusual gifts. He also feels slighted if we don’t wave at him when leaving or getting the mail.

For example-Stan is very hard of hearing. You constantly have to yell or repeat yourself. However, one morning as I tried to hurry off to work last summer. Stan came over with a bottle of WD-40. He apparently is hard of hearing but could hear the sound of my squeaking car door.  Another time, as I was hurrying off to work, the doorbell rang, which of course set off the dogs. There was Stan bearing a Wal-Mart sack with mayo and mustard in it. I wasn’t going to pass up mayo since it was on our grocery list.

Since then, Stan has made regular gifts of fish, deer meat and vegetables. He has watered our flowers and taken in our mail when we were on vacation. He has provided us entertaining gossip about our neighbors.

When Joe quit smoking, it made Stan rather lonely. There were numerous weekend mornings when Joe was still in bed that Stan came and visited me twice in half in hour. That’s too much Stan for me to take. He even asked me if Joe was mad at him because he hadn’t seen him.  Sort of cute. He also told me to stop making him cakes. He likes pie. I guess that was a hint but unfortunately, pie is not my forte.

That’s Stan. Lil is a little more standoffish. She likes to stand in the door and judge. Maybe she isn’t judging but she looks like she is.

Anyway, its probably good that we have neighbors like that. Since we’ve had the house closed up for a couple of days with the AC on, I expect Stan to ring the doorbell any moment now.