Category Archives: Neighbours

 Drive & Listen 

You can set the speed of the vehicle, street noise and music. I turn off the music and listen to the street noise. 

You can drive in 50 cities around the world and spend as much time in any one of them while “driving”. 

Pick the city of your choice from the list in the upper right. Notice how many cities have 5 story apartments for people to live in.

Postcards Harold would have loved to send

 1.  Of course I look familiar. I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator.

 2. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier.

 3. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste … and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have.

 4. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door  to see how long it takes you to remove it.

 5. If it snows while you’re out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway.

 6. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, don’t let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if  it’s set. That makes it too easy.

 7. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom-and your jewelry. It’s not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too.

 8. It’s raining, you’re fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door-understandable. But understand this: I don’t take a day off because of bad weather..

 9. I always knock first. If you answer, I’ll ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. (Don’t take me up on it.)

 10. Do you really think I won’t look in your sock drawer? I always check dresser drawers, the  bedside table, and the medicine cabinet.

 11. Helpful hint: I almost never go into kids’ rooms.

 12. You’re right: I won’t have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if it’s not bolted down, I’ll take it with me.

 13. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alar m system. If you’re reluctant to leave your TV on while you’re out of town, you can buy a $35 device that works on a timer and simulates the flickering glow of a real television. 

 14. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to
 never, ever look like a crook. 

 15. The two things I hate most: loud dogs and nosy neighbors.

 16.. I’ll break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, he’ll stop what he’s doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesn’t hear it again, he’ll just go back to what he was doing. It’s human nature.

 17. I’m not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it?

 18. I love looking in your windows. I’m looking for signs that you’re home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems I’d like. I’ll drive or walk through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets.

 19. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. It’s easier than you think to look up your address.

 20. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, it’s an invitation.

 21. If you don’t answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in.

Teale Phelps Bondaroff spends a lot of his time thinking about books.

A couple of times a week he loads up a bike trailer, which can hold up to 250 paperbacks, and pedals around town delivering books to free little libraries in need of a top-up. The weekend before last, he delivered the 20,000th book to a little library in ­Saanich as part of a placemaking ­project started in 2017.

He selected Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne to mark the milestone, because he thought the title was “poetically appropriate for the 20,000th book.

The 10,000th book delivered was a pilot’s autobiography reflecting on life at 10,000 feet, and Phelps Bondaroff is already thinking about what title to choose for the next big milestone.

Although the little libraries operate on a “take a book, leave a book policy,” new libraries often need a little help getting started, because people need to get in the habit of bringing a book when they go for a walk, Phelps Bondaroff said.

That’s where the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network’s Pocket Places Project comes in. Since 2017, volunteers like Phelps Bondaroff have been topping up the libraries and helping people build their own to add to the region’s growing collection. In that time, Phelps Bondaroff has personally made 1,220 visits to little free ­libraries, topping them up and sometimes ­redistributing books.

For Phelps Bondaroff, the free ­little libraries are about much more than books. They’re places where you can strike up a conversation with a ­stranger, meet your neighbours and make new friends.

“I’ve always described the libraries as coral reefs for community. And so they have the potential to sort of serve as these community hubs,” he said.

In one little free library in Royal Oak, there’s a notebook where people who need help running errands can leave their information and ask for support. Those wanting to offer help can also leave a note to connect.

“So during the height of COVID, if you needed help picking up groceries, you could say: ‘I need help picking up groceries. Here’s my phone number or email.’ And then someone in the back could say: ‘I’ve got a car on Tuesdays if someone needs a ride to a medical appointment,’ ” he said.

Many free little libraries have active social media accounts, sometimes interacting with each other. When there was flooding in Texas in 2019, Phelps Bondaroff reached out through his own library’s Twitter account to a free little library there to see how it was faring.

“It’s like a whimsical interjection to the normal hellscape that is Twitter, where you get, you know, just two inanimate objects talking to each other,” he said.

He’s also struck up a relationship with someone who runs a little library in England, exchanging postcards addressed to their libraries every few months.

Of the more than 400 little free libraries in Greater Victoria, there are some that offer exchanges in items other than books, like seeds and children’s activities and at least two “super COVID-appropriate” puzzle libraries, Phelps Bondaroff said.

“It’s kind of like one of these things where you start with a little library, and then you can expand to benches, to community bulletin boards, to ­emergency safety meeting spots, to community,” he said. “Ultimately, it comes down to community.”

Source: Times Colonist February 17-2021