Reubens, friendship, and getting out of the house

 Do you love a Reuben sandwich as much as I do? I make a Reuben dip that son-in-law Christian loves—and yet if you confronted him with sauerkraut (God forbid!) or even a Reuben sandwich, he’d probably turn away. Tonight a friend of forty years came in from Granbury and brought a Reuben casserole because she was worried about my mobility. She apparently often wakes at three in the morning, goes to her computer, and reads my blog first thing. When she read about my “adventure on the floor,” she was horrified and wanted to bring dinner. Betty, my dining out companion and now Linda’s good friend, joined us, and we ate on the deck. A lovely evening. Linda was in Philadelphia when the Pope was and out of three tries got one fairly close up look at him. So we talked about how awe-inspiring he was and is. At the time he was here I truly felt a spirit of good fellowship spreading across the nation, but I fear it has already begun to dissipate. He is so awesome with his love of humanity that I wish we could all carry that feeling in our hearts…and I can’t help but contrast it to American politics today and shake my head in dismay,

My big adventure of the day was to get out of the house and go retrieve my car from Volkswagen where they replaced the battery. I had it jumped last week, and Christian started it a couple of days when I couldn’t, but we let it go one day and it was dead when he went to drive it to Sears. So I took what probably is the more expensive route but the more efficient—I had it towed to Autobahn VW where my car has always been serviced. If we had tried to coordinate having it jumped with having someone available to take to for a new battery, I might have been without a car for a week or more. And until today I didn’t feel capable of doing it. As is, I have towing insurance and a VW discount, so it wasn’t all that bad. And they checked the car. When I called they said it was up in the air now, and I wanted to ask why it was up in the air to have the battery replaced. But I think they check everything with their sophisticated computer system. Since my car was in twice (at some cost) over the summer, I would have been dismayed—and cynical—if they reported problems. But they said all it needed was a new battery. Okay, the car is eleven years old, and I’ve never put a battery in it. Guess it was time.

So tomorrow, the grocery store…and after that, maybe the world. I’m on a roll.