She Comes, She Goes!

"I missed my corner!" she said when she finally got here. "It was foggy!"

And then we had to hit the road again immediately in order to make it to the notary public's office before five.

The plan was to stop in at Emil's place of employment afterward, but when we finished up the business and were ready to go, it was 10 minutes to five and Emil and his household would be sitting down to supper. We had at least a half-hour to kill before we could go over there, and Joanne didn't dare leave the next day without spending a few minutes with Emil.

"Why not see if Everett wants to come out and get a bite to eat with us?" Joanne suggested.

I was pretty sure he wouldn't, but hopped down from the Yukon and entered the store, where in a few minutes Everett would be finished for the day.

To my invitation, he shocked me with a "Yeah, sure."

He always has the same thing: a grilled cheese on brown, and french fries (no gravy) and a pop. He opens the sandwich, lines up a row of the fries in the cheese, and puts the top back on. One day I'll get a picture.

Meanwhile the only one I got was taken from outside the front window while Joanne was paying for supper.

Everett didn't deign to accompany us to his brother's; he was anxious to get home and relax after the day's heaving and hoing at the lumber yard.

Joanne and Emil side by side on the bench in his entryway; this is Emil's "picture" smile.

Emil was excited.

"Why didn't you phone and tell me you got that new mattress topper on Friday?" he demanded to know. "Then I would have come out to your place for the weekend while Joanne was here!"

"Was I supposed to? Sorry," I said, about three times in reply to his twice-more-repeated query. "I didn't think of it." Oops.

"It's obvious," Joanne commented later, "that he adores you."
Awww! That's sweet to hear.

She struck out this morning over snow-filled roads, and I picked Emil up at lunchtime and took him to his dental therapy appointment. Tomorrow is the Remembrance Day statutory holiday so I went into the office for a few hours to get a headstart on the work we'll face Thursday and Friday.