Anniversary And Local Color

You know how it is with us. Every time we make plans to do something, something else happens to mess it all up. So we don't really make plans anymore. We just go happenstance-by-the-seat-of-our-pants one hour at a time.

Today just happened to be our anniversary. We naturally didn't make any plans to do any thing special, so by-the-seat-of-our-pants, when Rick had a spare hour this afternoon, we headed out to the nearest blueberry farm.

This family farm has strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. I believe they have peaches and a variety of vegetable as well. We pulled up to the little hut where produce was for sale, and went in. As we walked through the door we saw a sign that directed shoppers to pull the rope, which was connected to a big cast iron bell, for service. Rick rang the bell and in just an instant two teenage boys pulled up in an old golf cart. The back of the cart was full of blueberries and the boys had smudges of purple on their faces, hands, and clothes.

The younger of the two boys hopped out of the cart and asked if we were there to pick blueberries. Now we could have bought some already packed in those nice little square cartons, but what fun would that be? I can do that in the supermarket back home. So I said, "Yes." (Rick might have thought about buying the already-picked berries, but I didn't give him a chance to answer. I wanted to soak up some local color.

The kid said, "Okay. We've got a special deal today. If you pick a bucket for us, you can have your bucket. Do you want to do that?" As Rick started to mumble something about how many berries it would take to fill both buckets, I said, "Sure!"

The boy shoved a bucket in each of our hands and said, "There ya go." And off we went. It didn't take long to fill our buckets and I think my sceptical groom of 27 years didn't mind it too much. He even got stung by a bee when he pinched it in a handful of berries, but didn't complain too much. By the time we got our two buckets picked, my hands had really soaked up some local color.

We did go out to dinner tonight, but it was not a celebratory anniversary dinner. Rick had a meeting with another adjuster to discuss a "problem" claim from _____. (you know where) Not much fun, but such is life.

On our way home we went by the store and bought some heavy cream. I just finished off my bowl of fresh blueberries and whipped cream. Yummmmm! Go ahead, envy me. It's okay this time. After all, it was my anniversary present!