Icon viewers:
Remember that MasterCard ad showing everyday items and giving a price until the very end where a special moment is shown and the ad says "for everything else there is MasterCard"?

I recently started thinking about how lucky we have been with neighbors.
In Columbus our neighbors were Dick, Jane and Spot (Spot was the big crazy German Shepherd). Jane was always available to help. At 2:30 in the morning she ran over to take our son when Chris went into labor. My favorite was the night we forgot and left the dog outside. Rather than wake us she got the spare key and put the dog in herself.

When we tried to sell our Columbus house the most promising buyer was repeatedly rude and obnoxious. We couldn't bear the thought of our neighbors getting stuck with him and ended up lowering the price so friends of ours could buy the house. The week before we moved to "small town" Bluffton, Dick took me aside and gave me this sage advice. He said, "Tim keep your mouth shut for the first year. Mow your lawn like everyone else and do what they do. After a year people will get to know you and overlook your quirks." I assume it worked, though I probably should ask the neighbors.

When we were looking at the house here in Bluffton, the realtor, also named Dick, told us how great the neighbors are. I gave him a hard time since he is one of the neighbors. Over 16 years some neighbors have moved away and new ones have arrived, but we have always been blessed with the wonderful people around us. We can ask for help and it is given. We can't put a price on that.

What brought the value of a "good neighbor" into focus was a neighborhood over by the hospital. Where, once, two houses with families stood, now there is just gravel. Because the hospital needed room to expand, the two lots at the corner are being torn up and graveled for parking. Bluffton is a good hospital. We are very lucky to have such a quality hospital in a town this size. But are they being a good neighbor? No green strip for trees? What about the zoning board? Didn't they balance changing residential lots into parking without imagining the effect on nearby neighbors?

Would the CEO of Blanchard Valley like to have a parking lot placed that close to his home?

My advice to the hospital management? Take the time to imagine how the neighbors might feel. Imagine the heat off the surface in the summer, the noise and headlights from the cars and loss of privacy. Is that how would you want a neighbor to treat you? After all good neighbors are priceless!

Tim McCarthy, Bluffton