==I love my husband, and here is one reason why.....

==Place: Canadian Tire
==Reason: Purchase Cake Boss mini baking pans
==Realization: They have none left...(fluted)
==Reaction: Shrug shoulders and continue browsing
==Great find: RED coffeemaker...and I have "wanted" one  forever
==Action: Seek out hubby, who is now in the "Man Stuff Dept". Show him the find of the season.
==He: You already have a coffeemaker!
==Me: But it is not red!
==He: We have no room for another coffeemaker.
==Me: But there's only ONE LEFT!!
==He: There will be others. Why don't you wait till the other one stops working?
==Me: Never mind. (Puts the coffeemaker on a stack of toilet tissue and walks away)
==He: (catching up) Look! If you want it that badly, get it!
==Me: I don't want it any longer.

This is where I exhibit all the  qualities of the perfect wife, bite my tongue, and refuse to mention the electronic toys "He" brings home from time to time, and the only reaction he gets from me is a raised eyebrow! (Well, two raised eyebrow, I never learned to raise only one.  But it sounds good! )
We proceed to the check-out with my one bag of sugar [really] and a turkey baster.

==He: Go get the coffeemaker...
==Me: I really don't want it any longer...I have already forgotten all about it!
We check out, go to the car, and drive home. The atmosphere is pleasant and the CM is no longer an issue...with me. Once home, I eye my brewmaster balefully, and proceed to make supper. I honestly did not TRY to burn the ribs....
Supper/clean-up/ and I decide to have an early night, do some socializing on my LT, read, and go to sleep earlier than usual.  I feel the book drop from my hands, and I sleep like a baby till 6:30 am. 

Funny! I thought I smelled coffee...Naw!! I doze for another ten minutes. Get up at 6:40, stumble to the kitchen in the dark, see a strange blue light on my kitchen counter, flip on the light, and...there it sits!! My coveted RED COFFEEMAKER..brewed coffee just a-waiting for me to pour the first cup! AHHHHHHH. Sooooo good!!
I make myself comfy at the kitchen table with my coffee, my Bible, and begin my daily (mostly) ritual. I am halfway thru my study, when hubby comes down the hallway! 
When the hugs, kisses, and thank yous are dispensed of, and I am on my second cup, I ask..."Why?"

****************HIS STORY**************

"I settled down to watch the hockey game after you went to bed. Habs won!! Then I got to thinking...you know , I do this a lot!! You want to change something, make something, buy something, and immediately my analytical mind takes over, and I am filled with reasons why it is not possible/practical/ financially feasible for you to do whatever. Then you are manipulated into believing you really didn't want to do it anyway! (This is true...it all of a sudden doesn't seem too important anymore.) So I quietly slipped out and got to CTC just before closing.

And couldn't find the coffeemaker! The staff checked the computer, they had one left, and he would check in the back. He returns empty-handed...wearing a puzzled look! No red coffeemaker! But the computer says.....

I am by this time standing at the check-out with a red coffeemaker in my hand. It was still sitting on the stack of toilet tissue... I hand it to the checker. She admires it. I tell her my story. She sighs "I just wish I had a coffeemaker that WORKED."  She checks it thru, bags it and I leave the store.

I  returned to my car. Driving towards home, I pondered the scene at the checkout. The checker's words haunted me. Here I was, buying something I didn't need, just for the color match, when someone else didn't have one at all, at least not one that worked properly. . I turned the car around and returned to the store, hoping I wouldn't find it closed. 

By this time all the staff was sweeping/cleaning/tidying for the next day. I went to the small appliance section, chose an OSTER on-sale coffeepot, went to the check-out, the same checker returned to the till to help me, she gave me a puzzled look, checked it out and passed it to me.  I then returned it to her, along with the receipt, and said: "This is for you!".

The look on her face was incredible, as she tried giving it back, saying she couldn't ...she really couldn't...but I insisted...and she gratefully accepted it. 

****************Me again**********************

===And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons I love my husband! The red coffeemaker? I would have lived without it, and not resented it. ==

 He would never have shared  this story ....but I am proud to.....before his analytical mind tells me I shouldn't!!=== :-)

===I spent the afternoon "winterizing" my shrubs and plants. I watered in my baby trees, transplanted some flowers, thinned out some others. As I worked, my thoughts reviewed the past 5 months that we have been in Nfld.
 Our drive to Hant's Harbour in July to help friends who are renovating an old house to use as a summer home. We were to help with the siding and some outside painting. It rained! But we got a good visit in, and managed to do some sight-seeing as well. Our plans to re-visit St. Johns never materialized. We spent most of the summer doing home jobs, which is exactly why we live in a condo in AB to avoid having to do! Go figure! 
We had a lot of company this summer as well. Three lots from AB. Family from NS. My brother and family from CBS...who I had hoped to visit at his home, and that didn't happen either. I am thankful we did see each other earlier in the summer. My two brothers in Lamaline work away for months at a time, so our visits are too rare. Last evening our young nephew and his girlfriend joined us for supper. That was so special...and we enjoyed every moment with them. 
Most of the summer was centered around Art's brother who was seriously ill last Spring, and spend six weeks in the hospital. His recovery was slow...and Art drove to Grand Bank at least twice a week to spend the day with him. Then, as Howard felt stronger, he would drive to our house in Garnish and spend the day. Last month he stayed with us for a week, helping with vertical siding and whatever else needed doing. I worried about him over-doing it, but he seemed to enjoy being busy and the bonding of the brothers was important to them both. 
My sister and I saw each other twice weekly for dinner at each other's home..we made that a tradition five years ago. I did not see some friends I had planned to see...even promised. I apologize to Mary, Bess, and Marguerite especially.
When my back started hurting and it became an effort to stand, I walked to the back of the house and stood gazing out over the Bay. The calmness and cerulean blue of the summer ocean have passed on, and now the seas are a dark, nearly black at times, blue, and the whitecaps are racing toward the shore.   It is a beautiful sight. I drink it all in. This image has to feed my hunger all winter till next Spring when, God willing, we will return again. I tell myself the wind is causing my eyes to tear up...but why the heaviness in my heart? In two days we leave this Island, this town, that we both love. When we see our daughter, her husband, and our two precious g-children, when we settle in at home, see our "western friends" again, then this vision will recede to the back of my mind, not to disappear, but to make way for what will then be "home" for the next six months. Within a week, we will have adapted to our day by day life. We are so very blessed to have a foot in each province, and to feel equally at home in either.