A good neighbor is like a cool breeze

Charles Reichley
Published: July 30, 2008

I’m not very good with questions like “what is the best book you’ve read”, or “what is your favorite movie?” I can answer, but that answer can change from day to day, and even minute to minute.

Right now I think the greatest invention in the history of man is the air conditioner. I say this because our air conditioner has broken, and won’t be fixed until after this column is published. You don’t know
how good cold air is until you don’t have it anymore. Tonight I walked into Target, felt the cool blast, and wondered if I could curl up in a shopping cart.

Now, we aren’t as bad off as most people with failed air conditioners. To save energy, I’ve have a window A/C unit for my bedroom, so I can sleep in cooler air and keep the rest of the house a little
warmer. Also, Monday night was cool enough to open the windows. And tonight (Tuesday as I write this) I was able to get an extra window unit on sale at Target. 

I also have a fantastic neighbor who repairs air conditioners. Despite having worked all day to install a unit in another house, he drove by around 8 p.m. to check out our system. Unfortunately, the
problem wasn’t easily corrected, so now we are waiting for a new compressor, and for our neighbor to finish some other work. He actually apologized that he couldn’t get our system fixed more quickly —
which is why I’m happy to wait for him. It’s hard to find people you can trust who actually care about helping people.

If it wasn’t for our ferrets, I wouldn’t be stressed out about the heat. After all, we have the bedroom cooled, and the kids don’t seem to mind heat like us old people. But I’ve been reading up on ferrets
since I found out we had missed a series of vaccinations. It turns out that ferrets are somewhat a cold weather pet, and are rather helpless if things get too hot.

The reason I learned about the missed vaccinations was that I was going to put the ferrets in a kennel while we took a vacation.  Our previous pets were gerbils — you could fill their water bottles, load up
their bowl with food and they’d last for weeks. But ferrets need daily care. I didn’t want to bother any of our friends, so I called a kennel, and found out we can’t get in until we have these vaccinations. But
fortunately, again, we have a wonderful neighbor who will generously care for our ferrets while we are gone.

I like to think I’m self-sufficient. I hate asking other people for help, mostly because I don’t want to be a bother. I’ll hurt myself carrying a heavy box rather than ask someone to carry it for me. But
sometimes you can’t do things by yourself. I couldn’t fix the air conditioner, or get my ferrets into a kennel. Its times like this when I you realize how important neighbors are.

In the past I’ve blamed modern society for discouraging neighborly interactions. Television, the internet, video games, and even air conditioning, conspire to keep us locked inside our houses, separated
from those who live around us.

Organized sports have us driving our children around town rather than playing pickup games down the street. Long commutes leave little time to walk around the block and talk to those you meet.

But in fact I have neighbors who hang out together, who do things for each other, and who still try to be “neighborly.” When I had to cut down a stump in my front yard, a neighbor saw me struggling with
my hand saw and brought his chain saw to save me.  When we need a van to drive large numbers of people around, we have several neighbors who are happy to loan us theirs. 

So maybe air conditioning isn’t the best invention ever. But if we don’t get out and interact with our neighbors, it really isn’t the fault of air conditioning or cable TV.  We can choose to bunker down in our
homes. Or we can choose to get out and meet those who live around us.

And that would be a good idea, because your air conditioner might let you down someday, but a good neighbor could save you.

Charles Reichley has been a Prince William County resident since 1981. He can be reached at critically .