I am making friends
Don't laugh. It's true.
I'm developing regular haunts, places to eat, a few place places to drink. (Let's be honest, it's the Wisconsin Northwoods -- there are more than a few places to drink.)
At one restaurant, the server knows when I walk in at noon Wednesday that I'm having a bowl of the homemade chicken dumpling soup. It's the kind of dumpling soup where the dumplings are flat, my preference. One bowl, with a fistful of crackers, along with a drink, comes to $4.85. (Oh, the dollar goes a long way here, my friends.)
At one place, the bartender can see me coming through a window so she has a Jack Daniels Manhattan with extra bitters sitting at my favorite spot.
Clerks at a nearby grocery store recognize me as the sandwich, lemonade guy. That's my lunch right now before I get my cooking stuff here.
And some folks are comfortable enough with me to talk smack. At another bar, my Sunday afternoon stop, a regular noted my mask and said, "I see you're wearing a diaper on your face." Without hesitation, I said, "That's because I was talking shit about you."
Laughs all around as well as a customary -- and sometimes competitive -- round of drinks.
Let's face it. Home isn't just about an address.
It's about a friends and familiarity, help and support, listening and reacting. A litany of why humans need other humans.
Peace and friendship and a beautiful weekend unto you my brothers and sisters.
So touching! And funny (loved the mask/diaper/shit story)! It occurs to me that you are doing, with words, what Vermeer did, with paints, to celebrate the humble beauties of ordinary life. Thank you!
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