Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/172920
Bloody Knuckles By Peter D. DuPre CHANGING LANES Laying Down A Guilt Trip A few weeks ago I loaned out my mower to John, who lives down the street. His mower was down and he wanted his yard all spiffed up for a barbecue he was having. "No problem," I said when John came knocking. He took the mower to his place, cut the grass, hosed out the undercarriage and returned the mower along with an ice cold beer. My neighbors are like that. We all try to be friendly and help each other out whenever possible. And why not? We all have to live together on the same street, so it pays to be as neighborly. Yep, this is a pretty good street to live on. Everybody gets along and no one if shy about asking for help with a project or to borrow a tool when they need one. Of course, not everybody follows 32 bloody knuckles 0913 cl.indd 1 the unwritten rule. In fact, I have broken it myself on a couple of occasions. Usually, however, I am the one who gets stung by the borrower. Normally, I don't mind waiting a while to get a tool or a mower returned, but when it is a close friend or family member taking advantage, I tend to get a little hot under the collar. Take last month, for instance. My nephew, Rob, was going on a weekend camping trip to the back woods and asked to borrow Ol' Red for a few days. Well, since I have at least two other working vehicles, I willingly obliged. The nephew, who is in his mid-40s, is usually a responsible guy and has borrowed the Jeep before and it always comes back in good condition and in a September 2013 // WWW.CHANGINGLANESDIGITAL.COM 8/6/13 3:08 PM