Neighborly

Palm Frond Sculpture Bus Stop, artist unknown, 2008.

This is a little story about 3 random neighbors in Noe Valley that don't know really each other. Neighbor #1 is a woman who has lived in her Noe Valley home for forever. Let's just say 40 years. The first time Blizz (neighbor #2) met her, she was trying to drag a gigantic palm frond that had landed in her driveway to the gutter. He noticed a tiny frail woman struggling with a giant heavy thing, so he helped. He's cute that way. She was very grateful and chatty. She hated that Palm tree, always dropping it's gigantic fronds in her way. She cursed an ex-husband who had sold that property out from under her, which resulted in new owners planting that tree. After their chat, he dragged it home and used the table saw to cut it down to fit in the bin. Last week Blizz found another frond blocking the sidewalk near Neighbor #1's house so he pulled it aside and out of the way. It was smaller but he still didn't want to drag it all the way home. Today, while on a dog walk I came across the results of unknown Neighbor #3.