We do something entirely unexpected

Yesterday afternoon we left for Town (and as I have explained in the past, Town is about 25 miles down the road) to run errands:

• We had to pick up a generator that we had dropped off at a small engine repair place because it wasn’t working right. Turns out that “cheap off-brand” generators such as this one, which we bought from Big Name Tool Place That Shall Not Be Named cannot really be repaired because there are no parts available – not even a spark plug – says the repairman.
• Then we had to stop by the funeral home to pick up our son’s death certificate and talk with them about options for printing the handout for the memorial service, if we decided to have a hand out.
• Then we had to stop by the newspaper office to pick up copies of the newspaper that has his obituary in it.
• Then we had to stop by Sears to buy a high-efficiency front-loading washing machine that was on sale, which is supposed to save us money on our electric bill and do a better job of washing our clothes. Every time in the past we have bought an energy-efficient replacement for an older model our electricity bill has increased. We will not abate our breath to see what happens when we start using the new machine.
• Then we had to stop by Aldi to stock up on butter, bacon, and eggs, which as you all know, are the building blocks of a good, heart-healthy diet.
• And then we arrived home at about 3:45.

The day before, on Thursday, I had spoken to my friend Judy about whether she was going to attempt aerobics class yesterday morning because of the snowfall. They live about 5 miles out of town on a hilly, windy, gravel road and often get snowed in by not very much snow. She and Charlie are leaving early next week for a 2-week vacation at a resort in Mexico. For the past two weeks or so she has been my go-to woman for hugs and shoulder crying, so I am going to miss her. I told her if they were able to get out to see Charlie’s mom, who lives in the assisted-living wing of the nursing home, which is about 1 mile from our house, they should call and come by the house for a visit.

We normally eat dinner at 4 p.m. on the dot – I know that is very early for some people, but we both work at home so we can eat dinner whenever we want and that is when we want to eat. We got back at 3:45 and there was a message from Judy that they were at Charlie’s moms and we should call them there. I dialed the number and heard my stomach gurgling because it was expecting to be fed shortly – indeed, Richard was setting out the plates – and after a bit of conversation with Judy, I heard myself say, “Why don’t you and Charlie come over for dinner?”

So they did.

You have to understand I can probably count on one hand the number of times we have invited people for dinner at our house in the last 30 years. We are not antisocial people, but our house is not conducive for entertaining, I am very nervous about cooking for other people– I have no confidence at all in my skill as a cook–and entertaining in that way is just is something we have avoided doing.

Last night was “left over night.” Richard had only eaten half his dinner from Thursday night because Thursday was a very hard day for us and we didn’t have much of an appetite – his problem was compounded because earlier in the afternoon he spilled a bag of cherry-flavored licorice all over the floor, washed it off, and then felt compelled to eat it all because it was wet.

Richard refuses to even taste the tongue I cooked a few weeks ago, so I was going to eat a tongue sandwich made on the last onion roll in the package. Richard grabbed a bag of frozen pork loin, we threw some Yukon gold potatoes into the microwave, he hauled out several containers of various vegetables, put together a salad, and within about 15 minutes we had a rather tasty meal for our friends without any fretting or attacks of nerves or a anything else. It happened too fast for any of that.

We sat around the table trading funny stories – especially Judy’s funny story of chasing after her miniature dachshund, who was chasing a chicken, and they all ended up in the lake. Charlie, who was a chemist by profession, enlightened us on how certain proteins, which are composed of long building blocks of…. uhhh…stuff…fold in on themselves. Well, we laughed and enjoyed each other’s company and then they went home.

I am still reeling from the spontaneity of the situation yesterday. We just don’t do “spontaneity” very well, but I think we are going to try to make a habit of it.