AAA

Never a dull moment around here. We woke up late, after getting up and down all night with Ben insisting he had to go to work- he’s talking about buying another real estate franchise- yeah right! He wanted to go out to breakfast for some strange reason- something we hardly ever do except when traveling- when I asked him where he said, “Denny’s of course.” Of course- although in 21 years as far as I remember we’ve never gone to Denny’s for anything. So I took him to Caitlin’s in Tumwater, not knowing where a Denny’s is anymore. He ordered this huge breakfast and kept adding everything the waitress suggested. When it took forever to get our meal, he asked our waitress, “What are you guys doing? Catching the goat?” Luckily our waitress was as out of it as we were so half the things Ben said to her went over her head.
Afterwards we took Bones down to Pioneer Park on the river. I thought I was being so clever by locking my purse, cell phone, keys in the trunk and carrying the key to the car in my pocket- the one I had confiscated from Ben last week when he was trying to race off in the Acura. When we got back to the car I discovered that I had the key to the old Honda in my pocket instead, which did not unlock the Acura. So there we were- Ben was tired from the walk and wanted to go home.
Suddenly the clouds shifted and it was hot. So we started to walk home, all the way I’m thinking logistically how am I going to drive back two cars- all morning Ben had been fighting me about driving again- it’s a constant battle- but if I follow him, what if he goes someplace other than where we are going? He can’t follow me for obvious reasons. . Then I had the brilliant idea of stopping in at the Y on Yelm Highway where they let us make a phone call to AAA, with Bones tied up outside howling and carrying on, Ben arguing with me that we could just call a cab or one of our many employees. This was my 4th, and last free call to AAA since Ben’s heart attack. It took us a half an hour to hike back to the park- mainly because Ben kept crossing Henderson, back and forth thinking he was building the new houses and wanting to develop the wetlands into a new subdivision. Just as we got back to the car, the kid who breaks into cars for a living pulled up in his souped-up hotrod. Of course, Ben is making all kinds of suggestions to this kid, who was trying to figure out what the heck was going on and what we were all about. But sure enough, he got the hummer unlocked and we took off for safer ground – home!