You've all read about Mike. Mike is the neighbor next door. He's a single guy in his mid 40's. We've lived next to each other for about 11 1/2 years and we've been friends from the start.
Mike was married once. Apparently the girl was psycho and damaged him with anything marriage related probably forever.
Mike tried to help out someone he met online and that went sour, too. She ended up cleaning out as much of his house that she could in the suitcases that he had. Lovely.
Most recently, he took in his elderly aunt. She took full advantage of him and was very thoughtless. She was not mindful of her bathrooming habits and was most definitely eating him out of house and home. Sadly, she fell and broke her hip and has required more intensive care. She wore him out. She is officially moved out, which has made his life so much happier, though.
Mike is the kind of guy that will do anything for anyone. We do our best to reciprocate. I've helped Mike align tail pipes, pick out the seat for the motorcycle and when we were having the roofs done (we were hailed and we chose the same company), he told the company to come and ask me what color of trim that they should use on his house. The roofer was puzzled when he came to me and I explained. I've watched his birds and pit bull while he's been out on vacation. I even took him to the dentist to have a tooth pulled. They knocked him out, I got him to and from, but had to stop to pick a prescription up for him. I remember asking him for his insurance card and he handed me the whole wallet. I got him home and propped up in a lawn chair in his living room and ran back and forth checking on him. It was an adventure.
He purchased beautiful leaded doors for his house. The company sent two with gold caming and one with silver. He paid an arm and a leg for these doors and he just wasn't up to tackling the mismatch door situation.
I called Home Depot and acted like his wife. I got them switched out for him.
Today, Mike was out setting up some surveillance cameras. Sadly, he has experienced 3 bouts with vandalism since being in his home and the keying of his car this past weekend has done him in. He was asking my opinion of where he was going to and onto what he was going to mount the cameras.
"Do you think that it is okay for me to mount the camera to the siding?"
"Just on the siding? Is it backed with anything?"
"No, but it'll be fine, right?"
"No."
"But if I put it here, I'll be okay, right?"
"Mike, you are just like my husband! He'll ask me something, I'll tell him no and he'll ask me the same thing again. No!"
All he could do was to laugh.
We ended up troubleshooting and I came up with a solution for him to which he exclaimed, "You are so smart!"
Bless his heart.
So tomorrow, for the neighbor who needs my opinion on a thing or two, but who is also the guy who updates our electronics with his hand-me-downs on a regular basis, provides us with computer tech support, watches our ornery animals when we are out of town, meets me at the nearest manhole to pass my house keys on to me when I lock myself out (he's a phone guy), lets our kid draw all over his driveway with chalk, power washes our sidewalk, blows the snow from our sidewalk and driveway apron and feeds our front lawn, I'll be sharing some corned beef with him. "Like for a Reuben sandwich?" "Mike, I'll give you a hunk. I don't care what you do with it. Yes, you can make a sandwich out of it if you'd like, but from me you'll get corned beef, cabbage and potatoes."
And again, all he could do was laugh. We're so lucky to have such a nice guy living next door.
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