by Phyllis McCrossin
It was a fairly quiet weekend for King and me. We helped our son paint his house Friday and babysat Friday night while he and his wife went out for dinner.
That left the rest of the weekend with little to do.
Saturday I attended a virtual wedding vow renewal for a friend I worked with years ago at Central Michigan University. Five months ago it was going to be an in-person vow renewal. Many things have changed since then.
There is this thing called a pandemic. Maybe you’ve heard of it? It has forced a lot of people to make big changes in their lives. And because of those changes we are learning a lot about friends, family and acquaintances that may have been better left unlearned.
Anyway, Brian, (the former co-worker from CMU) was “the IT guy” for the department where I worked. I can’t recall the number of times I would call him, “Brian I need a new keyboard.” Brian knew I spilled — yet again — another Diet Coke all over the keyboard. He never let on that he knew. He would simply show up in my cubicle with a new keyboard and offer to plug it in for me.
There are some people (not many) I miss from that job. Brian is one of them. I’ve never met his wife, Sara, but she and I chat frequently via Facebook. I wish them both all the best.
As for King and I…
Two weeks ago we drove to Chicago to get some RV equipment from a friend who is moving out of the country. The friend had just purchased a new high-tech motor home with all the bells and whistles. Since he is now moving and selling the motor home, he gave us all the extra equipment he had purchased to go along with it. It was a generous offer made because we had been good friends and loyal employees.
After retirement King and I had worked as caretakers on his hobby farm in South Haven. We were the last in a long line of people who came before us. Taking care of his place was actually a pleasure and we stayed on there for seven years. Apparently it was somewhat of a record for most of the caretakers there.
We came back from our quick Chicago trip with two brand new deep cycle batteries, some type of holding tank pump, a made-for-RVs satellite dish and a few “other things.”
Among those “other things” was a foam mattress topper. I decided to cover it and use it as an extra cushion for the table-that-converts-to-a-bed in the trailer. I use the area as a reading nook – only setting the table up when I have a project that requires the use of my sewing machine. I had ordered some material online and when it arrived I hauled the topper out onto the picnic table to attach the material to the topper – quilt style.
During the middle of the operation the wind picked up and the topper blew over onto itself. As I’m lying across the topper to keep it from blowing away I said to King, “I need a little help here.” He promptly got up and went into the trailer.
Okay then. I’m resourceful. Guess I’ll do this one myself. I pulled an ice chest over to the picnic table with my free foot and hauled it onto the end of the topper that was flying around. A second later King came out of the trailer and handed me my phone.
“What’s this for?”
“You said you needed a calculator.”
Marriage takes a lot of patience… and hearing aids.
