Robert.Robert.Robert.

When we moved into our house 9 years ago, one of the things I liked most was the overall friendliness of the neighbors. The door bell would ring and someone would be standing there with a pie or a handshake. Homes have sold and some of our friends have moved on, but a lot of them are still here, original homeowners when our subdivision opened up. Since then, our once tiny, quiet haven out in the middle of nowhere has exploded with new homes and businesses. I miss the former quiet and solitude where we used to have deer and the occasional skunk in the neighborhood. We get a lot more traffic through the neighborhood, and I don’t like it when people come speeding down the street treating it like an interstate.

One of the first couples we met were Susan and Richard. They live two doors down. They bought their house when the subdivision first opened and are still here. Their house caught on fire a few years ago, and they decided to rebuild rather than move. Here’s the thing. Richard is not Richard; his name is Robert. I have been calling him Richard for nearly 9 years and just recently he told me that his name is Robert. How embarrassing is that! And it’s not like he looks like a Richard or that I know a bunch of Richards. I’m not confusing him with someone else. For some reason, I got his name wrong from the get go, and now it’s stuck. We laugh about it now, but even this weekend, I said, “Hello Richard!” as we were checking our mail at the same time, and he immediately said, “Robert!” I wonder when his real name will finally sink it? Robert.Robert.Robert. Is it going to take 9 years?

Speaking of neighbors, we have a new set of neighbors right across the street from us, and they are really friendly. I never caught their names, because we are always coming and going, waving and talking across the street while raking the yard, etc. They had a party at their house on Saturday night with lots of cars parked out front and down the street. They came over to let us know that one of their guests had parked in front of our house and couldn’t get the car started when it came time to leave, so they were going to leave it parked overnight. As they were turning to leave, I finally asked what their names were, and he said, “Bindu and Richard!” I just started to laugh. Finally I have a neighbor named Richard!