Been a helluva year

There we were, one year ago, back in the days of innocence. My township held its annual Bazaar, and Jan and I took a table. We had so much fun we agreed to do it again this year, and her husband Tom even decided to fire up his ShopSmith and turn out a pile of his ever popular Bazingos, and take a spot at our table, too. Why, he wouldn't even have to sit down, he'd be so busy.

And here we are, a year later. I wonder if I should have had warning when I lost a friend over that Bazaar. I wound up with items she had purchased in the wrong size and needed to return. She decided instead I could put them out for sale at "that buy/sell bazaar next December".

Nothing would convince her I never have and never would deal with "buy/sell". Eventually it led to hard words and blocked phone numbers. I was sad for us for a couple of weeks. It seems like another life time, now.

Fast forward to the present, Laura came over today, to help me with some chores I no longer deal with. First and foremost, vacuuming, which simply hurts my back too much. That hasn't happened since the last time she did it, and I can't remember when that was. Long story short, my nose still is running from all the dust she raised.

My ironstone tray of worldly stones and a cactus needed a good scrub, which Laura administered, and then put all the stones back artistically. In my opinion, at any rate.

I hoped she would help move my desk farther from the window. Winter is coming on, and the cold air just radiates! She assessed the situation for a minute, then asked if I'd considered putting plastic over the window. She has just moved into her own place, and, she says, her first investment was plastic over her wall o'windows. "Do you have a hair dryer?"

What women of a certain age do not have hair dryers? We went off to the dollar store to buy a plastic window kit, and up it went.

Now I wonder where she borrowed a hair dryer to install her wall of plastic.

I took her back to Kent in the afternoon. Kent is a small city about twenty minutes southeast of me, and is home to black squirrels.