The MOW That Wasn't

This picture (New Orleans, 2003) has

nothing to do with this story.

***

So of course I was going to post about my first day back delivering Meals on Wheels. Well, here's what happened: My sister-in-law Lisa came to pick me up. We got to the church to pick up the food and I pulled out the client sheet. I said, "I don't know any of these people." I looked at the top of the page and it said, "route 4." Well I do route 3. I went back out to the truck and called MOW. The lady said, "Oh, we show Mr. and Mrs. Lundenburgenhofenstraten (or something like that) subbing route 3 today." I said, "Well that's odd because I called a couple of weeks ago and said I was starting back today. Am I supposed to do route 4?" She said "No. Oh, but can you sub for route 3 tomorrow?" So I said yes and a mini-van pulled up and I asked the lady if she was route 4. Well she responded like I had asked her where she had been on the night of September 10, 2001. She was very abrupt and suspicious (and this was in a church parking lot). So I tried to explain what had happened and she shoved the sheet back in my face (I nearly got a paper cut) and said, "You want it?" Oh I forgot to mention her teenage daughter was with her. Lisa was aghast at this weird turn of events and I simply said, "No, that's YOUR route and I'm going to sub in the morning." And we left.

We ran over to a resale shop I had driven by a trillion times and picked up a few items (I'm a sucker for green glass) and headed on over to Italianni's for lunch. The guys were so sweet and I felt terrible because I suck with names and told Lisa I wish I had read my old post about those guys before I came. I did remember the bartender's name (of course - that's where the beer comes from) and he discreetly reminded of the other guys' names. Chris, the magician did some new tricks and the food was excellent as usual.

Since I got home so early (2:00) I decided to test out my foot for driving since I would be doing MOW alone the next day and drove down to get my truck inspected. Oddly, I had been worried about pressing the gas pedal. That was nothing. However, the brake was another story. It wasn't a sharp horrible pain but it was unpleasant, so tomorrow I'm just going to pop 3 Advil about 30 minutes before I have to leave. Oh about the inspection: The car inspector guy came in and said, "This windshield wiper will have to be replaced, but the other one is fine."

A little backstory is needed here. We (those of us in this part of Texas) ended 2005 with 21" under normal rainfall. We've had devastating grassfires and ranchers are selling their cattle at a loss because of the water shortages. So I should have said "Why would I need a windshield wiper?" What I said was, "You know, I knew that windshield wiper was bad but I really haven't used it in so long, I completely forgot." Not to mention I haven't driven in two months. So anyway I took care of all of that, and now I have to go to bed early (for me) to try Meals on Wheels all over again.

So tomorrow I'll finally get to post about MOW.