Leslie Hoyt ~ Hello Home!

Hi y’all!

I’ve been hanging around Active Rain for awhile now- reading and learning and observing and sometimes laughing! I didn’t want to jump on the blogging bandwagon for fear of having to constantly come up with something interesting and worthwhile to say. I have been so blessed by the amount of knowledge and expertise and encouragement passed on to me through the awesome folks on this site. You all intimidated me so, that I have stood silently watching from the sidelines. But no more!

So here goes my insight, my first here, for today: I think that people in the Upstate are some of the nicest people in the world! Strangers treat you as friends. Acquaintances treat you like neighbors!

Here’s some personal evidence gathered to support this conclusion:

Mark, my husband/partner was standing in the line at the Post Office today (so were 20 others) when through the grapevine, it was learned that the Debit Card/ATM Card machine was not accepting payments and that those wishing to mail anything would now either have to pay with cash or check (this would involve getting out of line to go to the car to get the cash or check, this included Mark). A lady behind him turned around and asked him if it was really important to him if he mailed the packages today, and he told her no, but it would have been nice. She replied, “Well, I would have loaned you the money to mail them.” Wow!

Next scenario: we have an SUV, one of those with the spare tire mounted on the back. We bought the car used (we don’t do debt) and it had no tire cover. A few weeks after owning it, I walked out into the parking lot after a meeting to get in my car and head home. Something was on the hood of my car! As I got closer, I could see that it was a tire cover, a brand-new, direct from-the-factory, never-used, exactly-for-my-make-and-model tire cover with a note attached: “I had an extra one of these, thought you could use this one.”

One last one: we have some neighbors that live a few houses over, that we never quite get to visit with- they are always on their way out of the subdivision in a hurry, or we are. Last weekend, we had a gathering of friends and as spring is approaching (I hope!) I had just changed our front door wreath to a basket with spring florals to welcome my visitors. The next day, our wonderful neighbors, concerned for us, thought that the basket looked like (from their porch view) a bereavement basket. And coupled with the large group of people coming and going the night before, they concluded that someone must have met their demise in our family or household and paid us a visit! Now this is very funny now, but they were very concerned for us (then very embarrassed), but concerned enough to visit! They took the time to let us know that they cared about us!

With all the bad news we are bombarded with anymore in the news, I just had to share some of the wonderful things that people still do to show they care.

Counting my blessings, if you will! ‘nuff said.

Leslie out…and (in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice) "I'll be baaack!"