A Good Name

Orchids Galore! Ginter Botanical Gardens. Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

A good name is more desirable than great riches...

Proverbs 22:1

It is amazing how one's opinion of a person can change in the blink of an eye.  It is always a gut-wrenching disappointment for me when someone confirms, either by their own words or their actions, that they do not live a life of integrity.

The gentleman who has lived next door to me for two years (we have been calling him "Joe") in the pit bull family circus apparently moved out of the house (along with all the other family members) and left his dog inside - along with the pit bull - planning to come back each day to care for the dogs.  I did not realize this until Wednesday, when someone in the family chained Joe's dog in the backyard and drove away.  That afternoon when I came home from work, I realized that the dog had neither food nor water.  I grabbed a bucket, used the hose to fill it to the brim, and took it around to the back cement slab, within reach of the animal.    Then I texted Joe:  what in the world are the dogs doing here?  No answer.  No one showed up until yesterday around noon.  I haven't seen any of the dogs since, but it appears that they are still in the house.  The temperatures this week are in the high 80's, and the house has no electricity to even run a fan.  It has to be getting hot in there.

Today, the whole gang showed up to start emptying out the garage.  They started around 8:00am, and were still going at it when I left at 2pm.  The water to the property is also shut off, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that people are going to get thirsty and need to use the restroom.  Joe had told me that he wasn't all that concerned about the house not having any water, and this afternoon I learned why.  As I exited my home, I caught a glimpse of someone kneeling in the yard next door, working with tools on the water main.  It was Joe.  Apparently he knows how to manipulate the shutoff valve to get water flowing again to the house.  Whether he was turning the water on, or turning it back off, I don't know.  All I know is that his two-year posturing of being a better person than those he rented from instantly evaporated into thin air.