October 6, 2005
Dear Everyone:
Well, we’re back.
The wedding was lovely, the bride a vision, the groom as handsome
as ever. And the weather as
wet as you’d expect it to be in
Sometimes, you get a mini-heat wave near the end of
September, beginning of October, just to make all the kids newly stuck
in school regret that the lake is closed until next summer.
So, each day leading up to our departure, I checked the weather
forecast for
So last Thursday, as I prepared to pack for the trip, I resigned myself to shoes and pants instead of sandals and skirts. And shoes meant: Remember to pack plenty of stockings. And, of course, bring an umbrella.
In fact, I have one umbrella that generally lives in the suitcase. If I’m going somewhere, and I have a reasonable expectation that it won’t rain, I’ll take the umbrella out, to save the weight. But in most instances, the umbrella just stays with the suitcase.
It wasn’t exactly raining when we got to the
The people in the supermarket acted like these folks came from another planet. Who buys umbrellas at a supermarket? So they went across the way to a hardware store where they found cheap, small umbrellas.
In the meantime, Mother and I had been hanging out at her apartment in Mary’s Woods. Mother was watching television with her eyes closed and I was reading a book that I had started on the last trip, to visit “Alice” and “Kelly” and their girls in August. When it got to be lunchtime, we wandered down to the Bistro. But it was full. Every table taken.
I considered that I could go out for sandwiches, or something. Then I realized, since I had one of the rental cars, I could take Mother out for lunch. Which we did. And it rained very hard, especially since all the handicapped parking spaces at the front of the restaurant were filled.
We had a very light lunch, the soup, salad and bread combo for the two of us. So I over-tipped the poor server as it wasn’t her fault we both eat so little.
And it was still raining when we came back. We noticed an unusual number of cars approaching from the opposite direction, but didn’t realize why until we turned on the local news at home. A tanker truck had overturned on the main freeway. Those drivers with local knowledge were using the “back roads” to avoid the mess on the freeway.
When it became time to get ready for a get together at the soon-to-be bride and groom’s place, “Jeannie” and I took the rental car to the hotel to “freshen up” and pick up “Jeannie’s” gift for the bride. We expected it would take us less than half an hour to drive “downtown” and return.
But when we saw the steady stream of cars coming
towards us, we realized we would never get back to Mary’s Woods any time
soon. In fact, we didn’t
even try to pull into the hotel parking lot, since it would require a
left turn against the oncoming traffic.
Hundreds of cars were making their way through
We parked nearby and walked back to the hotel. Naturally, it began to rain. Naturally, “Jeannie” had left her just-bought umbrella in “Marshall’s” rental car. Once in the hotel, I called Mother’s place to explain the situation. “Marshall” had already realized the problem and had called “Jeannie’s” room to leave a message that the others would pick us up on the way to “Marian” and “Gerald’s” place.
I told him not to try and pick us up at the hotel (that pesky left turn problem, you see), but to meet us at the bagel shop across the street instead. While we walked down the street and across to the shopping center, the skies really opened up. And “Jeannie’s” umbrella continued to be in “Marshall’s” rental car.
By the time I reached the bagel shop, “Jeannie” had disappeared. She emerged a few minutes later from the hardware store, having just purchased her second umbrella of the day. When “Marshall” came by a few minutes later, “Jeannie” was reunited with her first umbrella.
It continued to rain, off and on, through the rest of the weekend. But it stopped before the wedding, when the bride and groom (having dismissed the superstition about not seeing the bride in her wedding gown before the ceremony) had many photographs taken both inside and outside the country club. I believe the sun came out once or twice and I remember seeing at least two rainbows on the way to the wedding.
Most people left on Sunday, although “Jeannie” and I waited until Monday so that I could spend an afternoon with a friend that I had not been able to visit with on so many previous visits. (“Hi, I’m in the neighborhood; but I don’t have time to see you.”) When “Jeannie” and I packed up and prepared to check out of the hotel, she discovered that the others had left their umbrellas in her room.
“Jeannie” now has four umbrellas.
On a sad note…
My Palm Pilot died this afternoon. I bought it at half-price five years ago when the newer version hit the market. It has served me faithfully all this time. I’m thinking of putting it in a shoebox and burying it beneath the cherry tree.
Oh, wait. I don’t have a cherry tree. So I’ll probably dump it in the garbage and buy a new one this weekend. God knows, I can’t live without it.
Love, as always,
Pete
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