Well, whaddya know?

I've lived in this house for nearly 4 years now.  I've always been friendly with the people who live around me, and have had a few polite conversations with the people that live in front of and behind me.  I don't like meeting new people all that often, but meeting your neighbors at least once is necessary.  At least say "hi", even if you never speak again.

I've often talked to the lady who lives behind me;
we have a few things in common, and if we're both working in the yard we'll have a bit of a chat.  Today she asked me if I would mind taking care of her fish, birds and garden while she was away for a few weeks.  I readily agreed, because finding a good animal sitter is hard, and I used to make a living doing it.  Plus it's the "neighborly" thing to do, and she's nice enough people.  She gave me some details, then we went about our separate backyard doings.  I went to talk to my flowers, something I do every day.  The berry plants I planted a couple of weeks ago aren't faring well, even after the heavy rains we got, so I like to give them extra attention.  Plants have feelings too (they even scream when you kill them), so I think that a little "you're looking lovely today" isn't to far out of the realm of normal.

When I got to the little bed by the porch in the front yard, I noticed one of my new, favorite plants looked parched.  (You just got 40 gallons of rain, hello!)  So I came back inside and started mixing a watering can with some collected rainwater and light fertilizer before topping it off in the kitchen sink.  As I filled the can at the faucet, I heard my name come across the back yard and noticed my neighbor at the fence.  I popped down the deck and she asked,

"Do you smoke?"

I am a smoker.  I smoke cigarettes and I smoke cannabis.  My neighbor also smokes cigarettes, so I thought she might be out and wanted to bum one, or maybe that her lighter was out and she wondered if she could borrow a light.

"I do," I replied as my bare feet stepped carefully around those painfully spiky dandelion looking weeds that were coming up with a vengeance.  I finished picking my way across the yard to the fence, and I noticed she was holding a little blown glass pipe, spiraled through with yellow latticino.  She took a toke and passed me the pipe and her red bic.  I took my turn and passed it back, and I think we shared a "holy shit, I'm smoking weed with the neighbor" moment before finishing the bowl off.  And chick has some pretty decent smokery.

We got chatty, talked about some more garden stuff, and I got some backyard fresh eggs.  She excused herself once again to get some sun, and I finished watering my flowers.  I made a new friend today, all by myself.  I haven't done that in a very, very long time.

Holy shit.  I smoked weed with the neighbor.  Awesome.