Somewhere in My Age or Elderhood, I Must Have Done Something Good

Ten-Dollar Daughter here, reporting on today's outing with my mom. Uh huh. Don't mind me puffing out my chest, huffing out exhalations, polishing my fingernails on my lapel. I earned a 100% raise since my last daughterdom report.

It's the last Friday of the month, you know. Bill-paying excursion day for Val. Actually, I paid ahead yesterday, on my day off for the funeral. That's because icky weather was in the forecast again for today. So I got it out of the way just in case. But I DID promise Mom that if the roads weren't bad, I would still come pick her up and drive her over to Bill-Pay Town to get some fries at Rally's.

Mom already had one outing this week, when we took her along to get that free computer part. She refused fries that day, but sampled a couple. I knew she wanted some. Even though she didn't ask. When I picked her up today, she (of course) had a story of strange coincidence to relate.

"I heard a car at my mailbox around noon. I looked out, and it was red. My newspaper lady has a red car. I wondered why she was so early, but I figured I'd just wait until I went up to get the mail, and bring in the paper then. I closed the shades and forgot about it. About an hour and a half later, I heard the awfullest noise out front. I looked again. There was a red car revving it's engine, sitting in front of my mailbox! I was starting to get worried. What in the world was going on?"

"Was it the same car?"

"I don't know. It was a red car. And I didn't know what it was going to do."

"Had it been there the whole time? Or did it come back?"

"Well, I don't know. I quit looking out, but I didn't hear anything until later. Then I got to thinking...'my friend Freda has a red car. I wonder if she put something in my mailbox?' She's always doing things like that, leaving me food on the porch and not knocking and not telling me."

"Like that cinnamon roll that she left on the porch, and you came home and found it, and saw a bite out of it when you went to eat it, and thought a dog unwrapped it to sample it, then wrapped it back up?"

"Uh huh. So I called her, and she said yes, that she had put a card in the newspaper box for me. When the mail came, I went up and got it and the paper. And would you believe that there was no card in my paper box? Just the paper! I looked and looked. I guess the newspaper lady thought I had put a card in there for her, and she took it! I'll see if I get it back tomorrow. If not, I'll have to ask her about it."

"You have more trouble with people leaving and taking random stuff! Good thing she didn't get your three bags of hedgeapples."

"Oh, and yesterday I caught the mail lady trying and trying to stuff my medicine package that I've been waiting on for two weeks into my mailbox, and it wouldn't fit, so she BACKED DOWN THE DRIVEWAY! I went out and got the package from her and told her she didn't have to do that."

"Good thing she did. Who knows WHEN you would have gotten it if it went back to the post office."

"I guess you're right."

We were in line at Rally's by then. Mom decided that she would like a Diet Coke, also. She had put off making one at home because she knew I was coming by to get her. We were also picking up a meal for The Pony, who was waiting at Mom's house with high-speed internet.

"Here. Take this ten for my food, and The Pony's. Keep the whole thing."

I'm back in the high life again. Ten-Dollar Daughter, signing off.

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Val's Blog Post For the Reluctant Reader

My mom is back to giving me ten dollars when I take her somewhere.