Today as I return from my walk I see a moving van in front of our next door neighbor’s house. The husband is an executive with P&G. They moved in ten years ago. We didn’t expect them to be here long as they had moved several times before with P&G and he is on the fast track. Their baby was about a year old when they moved in. He’s an 11 year old now, the eldest of three. I had gotten used to them being there. Always the expectation that one day they would move, but still used to seeing them there every day. They were a steady source of income for Kayla when she became of babysitting age and the job was handed down to Shayna when Kayla left for college. But overnight that changed when Shayna passed. And now they are moving to Arkansas. It’s strange to think that I’ve seen them so much over the last decade and in a matter of a few days I will most likely never see them or speak with them again. They will be alive somewhere else, of course, but they are leaving my world. Just another page turning. In a few weeks, more neighbors will move in and the cycle begins again. It’s finally dawned on me that one day I will no longer be here either. Everything is temporary. Everything.
Ty and Kayla are doing some serious Spring cleaning and Kayla is throwing out an old desk that we got from IKEA. I need a tool to break it down so I go to the basement to get it from my toolbox. I finally put the hummingbird feeder up a couple of weeks ago but I haven’t seen any hummingbirds yet. I read that hanging red ribbons near the feeder would attract them as they are flying by. I’ve been too lazy to get the ribbon, but I keep thinking about it. I dig through the toolbox looking for the tool, stooped over as the toolbox sits on the floor. The tool isn’t there. It must be in the kitchen drawer. I stand to head upstairs and start to walk when I hear something dragging behind me. I look down and somehow attached to my pants up near the pocket is a four foot piece of red ribbon with gold foil trim. It’s attached to a piece of a small disposable pump we use in the business. The pump dragging is the noise I heard.
Near where I was stooped by the toolbox is a box with various Christmas decorations in it, including some rolls of ribbon. I only noticed this when I returned to the scene of the incident to see where this ribbon could possibly have come from. I have no idea how, if it was laying on the floor, it could have become attached to my pants. I didn’t think to see how it was attached. It was firmly attached enough to drag the ribbon and the plastic pump (weighing only a few ounces).
I took the ribbon, cut it in half and hung it in the tree. Hopefully, the hummingbirds will see it.
