Thursday afternoon, senior day at the local supermarket. I insisted I drive BBBH to the DMV since yesterday while I was applying for cycle insurance, I discovered that her license to drive had expired two months ago. This has not kept her from driving. Until I discovered this. At any rate, she has a new picture, a new plastic document, and she is legal on the road until 2016. If you can believe it.
Then we cross the street to the market where I was greeted by this display. It's Christmastime? Certainly looks that way. Beloved Beautiful had insisted that I go into the store with her because "she wouldn't be long shopping." While I normally don't do this, for her mental health as well as my own, I did go in with her. And as is my wont, I wondered around in areas where she was not engaged in making her selections. Why is that, you ask? So even if you didn't ask: it is because it is inevitable as cold in January that I will ask a question or make a suggestion which will lead to (how can I put this?) a
contretemps which in turn will spill over into "strained" peace. Strained peas?
Less than thirty steps into the store, she is standing beside her cart while she is engaged in sincere conversation with a young lady whom I don't know, but she obviously does. I walk on. And here is this fantastic vegetablistic display. Beautiful cabbage (there is scarcely a wrong way to fix it-- unless you put a "mayonaisse substitute" on it) and next to it asparagus. Asparagus may well be my favorite veggie of all time. (Yes, I know the 'side effects.') But what is incredible is that in our small Hometown environment there is White Asparagus, a treat so rare that it may well be the first time I have ever seen it here in Podunkville.
Okay, BBBH has caught up with me and we stay together through the selection of the bread. We both prefer rye, it is only a matter of picking the variety, which is accomplished without incident and we move along. We arrive at the meat counter and, you guessed it. I make a suggestion. So then I said I would go on over to the pharm and pick up the scripts, which I did. Directly I returned along the meat aisle, and there, still in the same place I had last seen her, was the Little Lady. Leaning on the cart and talking earnestly to an acquaintance. I circled the interior of the store twice, stopped to check the icecream offerings, peeked down the meat aisle, and. Yes, she was still visiting.
I went to the front of the mart where the management has thoughtfully provided quite comfortable seating for guys such as myself who have nothing productive to do but wait.
Presently, spouse came through the checkout with one, ONE can you believe it, bag, sack or poke, whichever you call it in your locale. (Yes, I know the 'choke a fish or kill a tree' line.)
So, says she, I told you I didn't have much shopping to do. And that was true. But she had no less talking to do than is normal.
To relax a bit when we got home, we engaged in an intense game of Scrabble. Uh huh, that's relaxation around here. Then she repaired to the kitchen to prepare a repast and I dragged in the ornaments and started decorating the tree. Practically every ornament, every bulb, brings back memories of Christmases past. Good times. You see here a few of the round fluorescent bulbs. These are older than many of you, and each year another one or two of them fails to light. In fact one today went "POOF" when placed in its socket. Enough of them yet survive to make up one short string.
Mr. Penguin has celebrated Christmas with me for many, many years. You can see his little sprout below his feet in the previous picture.
This is sort of the overall effect, but I still have a huge quantity of bulbs and trinkets yet to be placed. Good day!
