Good Neighbors

I have good neighbors. They look out for me. I bought the house from them back in '04 and they call me every once in a while about different things.

This past week we had a horrible wind storm. Down here in the dirty south, we have these things we call Dust Devils. It really reminds me of the Tazmanian Devil. Everything looks great, but then you see it. Close to the road you are driving on, a bunch of dirt gets picked up in a small whirlwind and comes towards you. It looks like a tornado coming from the ground up, not from the clounds above. The Dust Devils are so bad that if you drive through one it makes your paint job look like you were sandblasted. However, that is exactly what it is.

So our dust storm was so bad last week they had to shut the interstate down because there was a 12 car pile up. I actually had to drive home from work through it. Luckily it was a Dust Devil, it was just blowing dirt. I know can imagine what people went through when they talk about the dust bowl. The sky was dark and brown, not much of a change for around here. :-) I could taste the dirt and I had to turn off the vents in my car because it was coming in. I got to the road where I needed to get out on, but visibility was down to about 100 feet and I couldn't tell if I would have enough room. Eventually I made it.

My poor wood fence at home didn't make it through the storm. One of the panels fell off and laid in the alley. The next morning I looked out and saw the panel and realized I would need to come home from work that evening and try to prop it up until I could find a post hole digger. Then my next door neighbors called me and asked/volunteered to put that panel back up until I could get to it later. That was so nice of them. He actually put the post into the ground and everything. Now my fence is strudy enough to make it through the next dust storm that is scheduled for tomorrow. :-)