Sometimes I am amazed

Our townhouse owner's association met this weekend for its annual cleanup. This is always enjoyable, a few hours of raking and snipping and mulching, interlaced with stories. Most of us have known each other for years. Very little changes on the site, though this year we had to walk carefully around a female killdeer nesting in the middle of the lawn.

I worked with the men for most of the day, occasionally visiting E at the other end of the place. She worked with the women on clearing out and mulching some beds. We raked and carried brush and loaded the truck with trash.

Midday E was kind of excited as I approached, though that is completely normal. Who wouldn't be? She had been talking to one of the women who lives with her husband three doors down. He teaches at Harvard. She has retired from administering a program at NSF. She and E had been talking about where people came from and arrived at a point where they realized that he and I came from the same small town in upstate New York, Trumansburg. And not only that, we had both played sousaphone while we were in high school. On top of that, we had both graduated from Cornell University. The guy had even painted the house next door to my grandmother's house.

Our association has a dish to pass dinner at the end of the day, which is usually fun, full of small talk and wine. Everyone brings a dish, a dessert, or some wine. Our contribution this year was not to be trifled with.

Also this year, just before dessert, we two T-burgers sang our high school anthem. Weird, but fun. It was kind of interesting hearing how our paths diverged, then came together in a small place with a beautiful view. I am amazed.