Meeting the Neighbors!

For whatever reason, today was the day to meet the neighbors. Both of them!

I live in an area where the houses are far apart from one another and there really are no kids to bring people together. We've lived here for three months now. Up until today, I've waved to the them as we are both mowing our lawns or passing each other in our cars. That's actually pretty pitiful seeing as though I make networking my business. But, what can I say ... my introverted side takes over once in a while ... especially off the clock.

Anyway, Jim's his name and his wife Jane live across the street. Here he comes walking down my driveway to say hi as I'm planting my poppies and iris for the spring. He's a very nice older man who has lived on this street for 35 years. He told me the low down on the neighborhood in just 20 minutes. We talked about the local deer, the neighbors, their home in the mountains of PA, the winters they spend in Florida and oh yes, his past career (he's been retired since 1988). Jim used to own his own business making sheet metal. Bingo! I asked Jim if he knew Scalise Industries (another sheet metal company in the area). "Oh yeh, Mark Scalise! Nice guy!" I bet Jim didn't think I would know anyone who made sheet metal. I did some training for Scalise Industries a few years ago. Jim's going to see Mark next week and will tell him I said Hi.

This got me thinking about that six degrees of seperation. I wonder who else Jim knows? How about Amy (my other neighbor that I met today). I wonder who she knows? We had a brief conversation at the mailbox. Networking is a funny thing. It never fails, even for me, that when I turn my networking button off or slack off a bit by not making the first effort to say "hi" to the neighbors, what could I be missing? I'm sure glad that networking bug pinches me on occassion.

Have you ever not wanted to go to a networking event and then found it to be great? Have you made the effort to meet your neighbors?

Ciao for now. I'm off to prepare to go to a Corn Maze! If you like a challenge and you never heard of a corn maze, look it up online www.lonesomevalleyfarms.com http://www.lonesomevalleyfarms.com... you're in for real treat!