“Honey, have you seen the tree in the neighbor’s yard across the street?” Linda said this morning while pouring me a second cup of coffee. “The house that’s for sale?” I said. “Yeah, come take a look. We’ve lived here for decades and I don’t ever remember those leaves turning such a beautiful color.”
After our recent New England trip, I guess we consider ourselves to be experts in the art of fall foliage appreciation. Just as impressive to me, though, was my wife’s cheerful disposition. We don’t have knock down drag outs when there’s a disagreement. (okay, fight) It just gets mighty quiet around the house until one of us breaks the ice. There’s usually a mutual apology and that’s pretty much the end of it.
Our troubles began a few days ago when we met up with friends, Denny and Joan, for a drink at one of our favorite local establishments. As we were chatting, a lady from the next table came over to ours insisting that she knows Joanie from bowling years and years ago. Joan politely said she didn’t remember but the lady kept coming over insisting they were long lost buddies. Then she came over to me and said, “Hey, aren’t you the guy from TV?” I believed she called me Dave. When I said yes, I extended my hand and, with a note of sarcasm, insisted she tell me her name. Instead of conveying the message that her regular trips to our table were becoming annoying, she felt comfortable enough in our relationship to come over one more time to tell me about some wonderful new diet supplement she was selling guaranteed to improve my health. (Lose weight) It was at this point that I’d had enough and, boosted by the bravado that only happy hour beverages provide, I told her I wanted no part of her pyramid scheme, asked her to leave and bother us no more. Linda..who is a good person and hates conflict and public embarrassment, wasn’t too pleased with how I handled the situation and indicated as much. Since I had my own transportation, I left and that’s how it came to be a bit chilly and quiet around our house this weekend.
“That tree really is pretty, I said, especially in contrast to the yellow-leaf maple in our own front yard.”
“I love you, you know.”
“I love you too.”