Caught in the Act.........of Kindness!

  We have the world's best neighbors!  You know.  The kind you can borrow a cup of sugar from or better yet, the kind who will loan you their riding mower when yours has a bent blade and craters in the middle of the front yard.  We've even had a neighbor approach our unsuspecting son-in-law, thinking he might be a burglar,  when he came over to the house while we were away on a trip.  It's always nice to know someone has your back!
  Several years ago, while I was still working full time, I would put my garbage container out every Monday and Friday morning, only to find it emptied and back up by my garage when I came home in the evening.  Since we have a lot of neighbors who are home during the day,  I was never sure who was doing it. And even though I no longer work outside my home, these sneaky little helpers have continued to put my garbage can away, saving me that second trip out to the street twice a week.
  Well, I finally caught them in the act!  When I heard the garbage truck coming last Friday, I planted myself by the dining room window with my camera in hand.  And sure enough, about fifteen minutes later, this is what I saw...

This is Bob, my neighbor who lives across the street.  And he's rolling my cart right up to my garage!  And then, this is what I saw next.........

  That's Betty, his wife, driving the cart!  Don't they make a cute, sneaky little couple?  We're not sure of their age, but we think they might be in their early eighties.  Twice a week, in the heat, rain or cold, Bob and Betty are out there with their cart going from house to house making sure everyone's container gets rolled safely     back to the house.  Sometimes when it's really cold or wet, Bob just stays on the back of the cart, grabs the garbage containers' handle and Betty drives them both right up the driveway!                                             

Aren't they the best?   Thanks, Bob and Betty, for showing us all how to  be great neighbors!                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                    

The "Ugly Quilt" Dilemma

Yesterday, while cleaning out my closet, it  resurfaced once more. The quilt top.  The one thing that I can not seem to dispose of. It's been  folded away in a box for thirty-seven years just waiting for the day when I will lovingly remove it, send it off to be quilted, and then proudly display it on a bed.

The problem: It's UGLY!  I mean reeeally ugly!

In 1973, months before my husband and I were to be married, two sweet, little elderly sisters at my church pulled me aside and said they would like to present me with a gift they had made.  They went on to describe a beautiful quilt top that they hoped I would love and be willing to finish. Being a budding seamstress, I excitedly thanked them and promised to finish and cherish their gift.

When it arrived, I opened the box with great anticipation and this is what I pulled out:

The ugliest quilt top I had ever seen!!!!  Notice those big, brownish-reddish stripes through the middle? U-G-L-Y!!! With great disappointment, I returned it to the box, wrote the perfunctory thank you note and promptly forgot about it.

A few years later, when "country really was cool" I took it out again, tried to imagine it on the bed, on the table, on the wall, on the windows, but even in that "country decorating" decade, it was just UGLY.  Oh, how I wanted to suddenly have a decorating inspiration, to make those little old ladies proud, but it just didn't happen.  So I sadly folded it back up, tucked it in the box and stuffed it in a dark corner of the closet.

Over the years that quilt has moved to seven different cities and seven different closets.  Every few years, usually during spring cleaning, it resurfaces. I take it out once more, hoping this will be the time that I will finally see its hidden beauty.  I know it must be there, otherwise why would those sweet little ladies have spent all those hours stitching it together?  Or were they just trying to get rid of a really ugly mistake?  I guess I'll never know since I don't even remember their names and they'd be over a hundred years old if they were still alive.

So I've finally come to the conclusion that the only reason this quilt is still in my closet is GUILT.  I'm carrying it around because I feel guilty.  I made a promise to two little old ladies that I don't even remember and who probably forgot all about me shortly after getting rid of, I mean giving me, this quilt top! How sad and pathetic is that?  So, this week, I'm finally going to decide..........do I take it to Goodwill,.... throw it in the dumpster, or.........just leave it to my daughters and let them carry on the burden of guilt?

Any suggestions?