"So, what's the deal with paper rounds?" asks Beth. "Like, how do they work?"
"Well, as I understand it, you do it for about three months, forget to buy new batteries for your cycle lights and are crushed under the wheels of a large lorry, leaving the the rest of us to mourn you every day of our lives," I say.
"So...you're not keen."
"I think that's a fair assumption," I say.
I'm probably being mean, but then I'm feeling guilty, and what is your family there for if not to provide a a safe discharge for emotions that can never really be unleashed in public?
I'm not bad at keeping up to date with what's going on in the world, and could give you a reasonable account of what's happening in Iraq, Tibet and in the Zimbabwe elections. And yet it took me a week and a half to find out that the old man two doors down had died, leaving a space in the bright yellow ambulance that brought him home from the day care centre every other day, a widow and an unmowed lawn.
Time to get off the blog and back into the local community?
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7 comments:
Well, this will make you feel better. Having seen a 'sold' sign next door, and then a lot of activity involving various vans over a few days, I went and introduced myself to our new neighbour, and she said "Actually, um, we're the ones who are moving out. We're going next week. We have met, but not since you first moved in [about 10 months ago - Ed.], and we've been so busy with the baby." Baby? I thought. What baby?
And anyway, the blog is the local community these days. The world is a village, and all that.
Sorry to hear about your neighbor -- and the anxieties you might be experiencing in raising your three children in a modern world.
Unfortunately, guilt is inversely proportionate to joy.
At least you are better informed on world affairs than the average person is, so you get extra points for that.
I am trying to prevent you from getting off the blog, as I think you serve a very useful function here, namely stopping the early onset of dementia in my case with your witty, and sometimes hard to figure out, but always relevant posts.
You do see my point, I hope?
No OM - don't beat yourself up. It's a sign of the times -
Working, mothering, taxi-ing, wife-ing, cooking, worrying, keeping young girls off paper rounds....
You are not alone. It is sad, but true. If you know them (or even not), just pop a "Thinking of you" card through because believe me, if it has been two weeks, this is when the family get deserted and the "vultures" are gone and the "sightseers". This is where it does get hard and they might appreciate a neighbour who kept her distance at "family time" but is around if needed now the family have gone. Just a thought.
Get off the blog? If I did that I'd have absolutely no life....
I'm sorry to hear about your neighbour. You could offer to mow the old lady's lawn - and think up blogposts at the same time.
Don't let Beth do a paper round. My sister's boy did one - and guess who ended up getting up at 5am every Saturday/Sunday morning, giving herself multiple hernias as she struggled to carry all those enormous broadsheets with all their lifestyle supplements and glossy fashion, food and home sections. It wasn't pretty. I would have just tipped them into the canal and gone home to bed.
Mya x
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