When I saw that the weather forecast for Thursday was 64 and sunny, I decided it would be a good time to use a vacation day so that I could enjoy the nice weather.
My hope was that we could do some yardwork and then spend some time at Lincoln Memorial Gardens. We succeeded in the first, but never got to the second. But that's okay, because we made a new friend!
While I was out in the driveway cleaning all of the trash out of the car (quite an undertaking!), I noticed a woman walking by with a young boy about Lando's age. They paused at the end of our neighbor's driveway, so I called Lando over and pointed them out, asking him whether he wanted to go over and say "hi". Lando always wants to greet anyone who walks by our house. Except for this time. For whatever reason, he suddenly decided that he wasn't interested. Luckily Dawn came out just at that moment, and after she pointed out that the little boy was playing in a puddle, Lando just as quickly decided that saying "hi" was a good idea.
The woman's name is Jessica and her son, Marshall, is 4 years old. He has an older brother, Jack, who is in kindergarten this year. While Lando and Marshall played in the puddle, Dawn and I talked with Jessica about raising kids, the joys of home ownership, and how we came to live in Springfield.
It turns out that Jessica used to live in Colorado, less than 20 miles from Manitou Springs where Dawn lived! And it turns out that her ex-husband grew up in Centralia, the same town where I grew up! Somehow or other, we've all wound up in Springfield, living within walking distance of each other.
Eventually the mini-playdate migrated to the front porch of our house, and we exchanged phone numbers with Jessica. It looks like we managed to actually find Lando a friend he could play with in the neighborhood! For that matter, perhaps a friend for Dawn and I as well.
It's amazing how having a kid can both isolate you from your old friends ("Sorry, too busy, Lando needs to go to bed early") and introduce you to possible new friends at the same time.
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