Phone Lines

  This week I have been struggling with lack of cell phone coverage and a crackling land line.
Phone problems happen so often in Cape Willington. I believe it is what led up to the misunderstanding between Timothy Granber and his very long time girlfriend , Amalia Vasar.
   Amalia was at the knit a pair of socks class at the Town Library, when her cell phone rang. It was Timothy, or she wouldn't have answered it during class. He was calling her from home on his crackling land line.  "Amalia, will you pick up Larry for me?". The cell reception at the library not being totally clear, Amalia heard " Amalia, will you marry me?". 
  "Yes!" , " of course I will".  
So, while Amalia was telling all of her friends in the knitting group "Timothy finally asked me to marry him! , and I said Yes! ". (though it wasn't quite the romantic proposal she had dreamed about), Timothy was home waiting for her to drop off his brother Larry so they could watch the rest of the game together.
  My friend Walter Harper told me "this one will take some time to sort itself out". "Kind of like when Barry Laskow called and asked me if  I would take in a stray dog".  "Yes, of course I would". which is how he ended up owning Charlotte the 350 pound hog.

Summer Wreath

     Joan Donnelly's Christmas wreath has been hanging on her front door for 8 years.  I know it was alive once. Now it is brittle shades of brown and yellow. The once cheery bow is drooping, faded green bleeding into red. Granted , we don't use our front doors here. Always the side door. (I even heard that Steve Briar built his house without a front door at all!). So I suppose Joan may not even know the wreath is still hanging there, waiting for attention. Or maybe she is thinking 'hey', only a few months till Christmas, why bother?.
   Thinking about that summer wreath, and front doors, Candy Holliday showed up at my door the other day. Maggie was out of town, Doc is too busy, and Candy wanted someone to go with her to deliver three dozen high bush blueberry plants to The Lightkeeper's Inn. The gardener at the Inn, Dahlia  Roseet is a piece of work. Her name used to be Sandra, but she changed it to Dahlia when she started her job at the Inn. I hear from Candy that Dahlia can predict the weather from looking at pine cones.  An open pine cone means good weather, a closed up cone means rain. "What do the pine cones say?" she asks everyone.
   Candy and I unloaded the blueberry bushes from Candy's jeep, with Dahlia's help. There were ooohs and aaahs  by guests and employees . I can't wait to go back and see them all planted and in bloom. 
   On the way home from the Inn we drove past Joan's house. "Hey! That reminds me, I need to take down my Christmas  wreath " Candy said laughing.