The neighbors

Our neighbors across the street are a very tight-knit family. Ed is retired, a former marine. He attacks his suburban life with military efficiency, from placing little gnomes and animals around his garden, to strategically arranging the 4 cars in his driveway to maximize coverage during snowstorms, to decorating precisely 30 days before every holiday. His wife Dotsy is a heavyset woman, also probably in her late fiftees, with long dark hair. His 2 daughters, Heidi and Holly are both grown, finished with school, yet still living at home. They are probably 3 or 4 years apart. I find them a little hard to tell apart - both slender and pretty, with long dark hair.

Whenever anyone leaves the house, everyone remaining in the house comes to the front porch to call out, "I'll see you later! I love you!"

It's sort of sweet the first few times. Once you realize it happens about 5 times a day, it becomes a little comical to the point that if we see anyone leave their house, Alec and I call in falsetto voices, "I loooove you!"

While it is very endearing to see how devoted those girls are to their parents, I hope our girls won't be still living at home in their 20s...