post script

For those of you who do not read the comments left by readers (and you really should; they are often the best part of almost all blogs), I want to give you "the rest of the story" concerning my neighbor. For those of you who do read comments, you will recognize this as part of my response to "Juan Calypso."

I talked to my neighbor tonight. She had two reactions. The first was a tearful acceptance of my offer to let her use my trash can. That did not surprise me. After all, what was she going to say?

It was her second reaction that caught me off guard. She was noticeably perplexed by my offer. That was a good reminder to me that no matter how good we think our relations are, they are probably not as good as we suppose.

For me the moral is that I need to show the same kindness each day -- even if it does shock my neighbors -- and frighten the horses in the street.