Neighborly (or Feeling Sappy About Being a Mom to Boys)

Shaun and the boys are out having an adventure in the rain. Well, first they went to get new rain boots at Fred Meyer. Wet adventures are a lot more fun when one is properly equipped.

I should have gone along, because I could use some boots (and an adventure as well) but I am starting to come down with something. Staying home in the warm dry quiet sounded positively restorative.

Camas High School had their homecoming football game last night (which we can hear from our house if we leave our windows open) and it got me to thinking about the days when our kids will be that big. I thought about Nels graduating and Willem still being here without his brother, and that just about did me in.

Then I heard a knock at the door. I peeked out the kitchen window and saw a tall teenage boy in basketball shorts with his sweatshirt hood up against the rain.

I opened the door.

"Is your husband home?"

"Oh, no...he's not here right now."

I figured it must the boy from next door, but I have no idea when he got all tall and thin. He looked super disappointed when I said Shaun wasn't around. He turned to go.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Well, it's my homecoming tonight. My dad's out of town and I need help with my tie." His dad is a co-pilot for Alaska Airlines.

"I think I might know how to do it..."

"Yeah, that's what my mom and my sister said, too. I thought someone who does it all the time..."

He tilted his head towards the house across the street.

"He's a business guy. I'll ask him."

"OK. Come back if nothing else works. Have fun tonight."

"Thanks." And he very bravely headed to the neighbor's house.

I say bravely because the neighbor has had a visitor outside on the driveway working on a car project all day, in addition to a landscaping crew doing something in the yard. I know I'm a wimp, but I would have had to summon a lot of courage to go ask an acquaintance to tie my tie with all of those other people around. And while this neighbor is always always polite and as kind as he knows how to be, he's not exactly the warm and fuzzy type.

I am, though.