A Simple Gesture

My old neighbor Lloyd is a stand up guy. We lived across the street from each other for over a decade and became close through the years. He’s a retired geologist (I believe) but can’t sit still to enjoy that retirement as he’s always doing something to keep busy. One of his passions that I think is a noble deed is sending out care packages to the troops stationed overseas.

He will contact folks at big corporations like Johnson & Johnson or Frito-Lay. In return for a bit of pestering, he will receive pallets of useful products. Thinks like beef jerky, chips, deodorant, toothpaste, and all other sorts of random goods.

He comes to visit me at the shop every Tuesday to pick up boxes from my weekly shipments, to utilize to send on the long journey overseas to all the brave men and women fighting the good fight. We sometimes give him some care packages of comics to send over as well and gave even received some thank you letters from soldiers which is simply awesome and humbling.

Now and then when he has too much product, he will toss me some goods as well. I haven’t bought toothpaste for years now. No asshole! Not because I’m a slob who doesn’t brush their chompers. I probably scrub those fuckers too much in all honesty. It’s because he receives pallets of brand new toothpaste and always brings me a few boxes whenever he gets new stuff in. Nice gesture.

Point is, we help each other out when needed as friends often do. But yesterday, Lloyd went above and beyond hitting me in a personal way. When he walked into the shop midday, he handed me a flash drive and told me that he’d been wanting to give this to me for a bit. So I popped it into the slot on my laptop and a virus was loade...no I’m kidding.

The files contained inside the drive were photos he had taken throughout the years of me and my pups. Some included my ex wife as well. These dated back to around 2009 through 2013. Most of them were when we were taking the pups for walks through the neighborhood and just chatting along the way. I thought nothing of this at the time but I’m glad he captured these moments.

We had a conversation a few months back and in it I mentioned how I’m trying to get some photos of the pups from my ex. I had found some personal family photos of my ex wife’s and I kept em for when my hatred subsided. Although I don’t wish her a magical life filled with joy, I no longer carry that hatred and darkness that consumed me for quite some time. So I’m in the process of going through her lawyer to hopefully set up a swap of photos....her family photos for pup pics. I hope she keeps her end of the bargain.

Either way, he must have remembered that conversation and thought to himself that he had some photos to share. He told me as much yesterday. He said he remembered how important my pups were to me and thought he’d surprise me with some photos that he had. A simple gesture that goes a long way and meant the world to me.

I’ll share the photos here once I upload em to my computer at home.

Thank you Lloyd.

Blewitt