The good fortune of having wonderful neighbors

I take for granted far too many blessings in my life. One is the fact that, for the past 18 years, we have had amazing neighbors.

They have been the same neighbors the entire time, by the way. Even with 18 years under our belts since we moved in, we are still the newcomers on this end of Miller Avenue.

Just to the west of us are the Warnekas, Tim & Beth. They have been there forever and a day and are just about the nicest people you will ever want to meet in your life. Their kids, Chris and Bridget, spent a lot of time playing with our kids when they were all growing up.

In fact, I am going to post a brilliant video that Bridget, Chloe and Jared made back in 2010. It is a tour de force of acting and video editing that deserves to be remembered. None of them is likely to be happy I've posted it, but it's too good not to share:

On our east side are Joe and Lisa, whom I've mentioned here before. My kids have been cutting their grass for the past decade or so. Last summer, Terry and I got to visit the campground where they spend much of their time during the warm-weather months. Quite often you will see Joe in our backyard doing pull-ups on our playground set.

We are a fairly tight-knit group among these three houses.

Which is just something I take as a matter of course until I hear horror stories from others about their neighbors. It makes me realize how fortunate we are to have such kind, considerate, pleasant people living near us.

That realization, combined with another viewing of the Tik Tok video above, makes me inordinately happy.