A Four And Five Star Day

A Four And Five Star Day


On Friday morning Amy informed me that the horoscope writer in the Arizona Republic said she would have a four star day and I would have a five star day. Yeh!

It was a day when her arthritis became abominably painful. This has the effect of making her more than a tad impatient with everything, everybody and above all, me. I support my sweetheart as best I can under these conditions, usually by simply holding her in my arms at intervals, but today she would not take time for that. She had a big schedule of unavoidable activities requiring physical movement

I had some work to do in the house, some to do in my home office and then driving to ten different locations to do shopping, and set up book signings at several retail locations. Getting out of the house was a relief. A short time after I started my errands she called to say she had decided we should have Chicken and Dumplings for dinner. I happen to love this dish and quickly agreed to stop at the Safeway for a can of condensed Cream of Chicken soup and drop it off at home before completing my errands. This proved to be the first of a series of unhappy incidents; sort of like the first step in a crash ladder described in the Zinger Success Ladder Or Crash Ladder

We like and use Safeway brand products. In the case of soups they are stocked at random among the Campbell soup varieties in a fancy space saving, dispenser rack, furnished by the makers of Campbell soups. I knew from experience where the Cream of Chicken was located in that five foot high by six-foot long apparatus. I grabbed two cans and checked out quickly.

Arriving home I placed them on the kitchen counter in the grocery bag. I then went quickly to freezer to extract two packages of chicken thighs to defrost. I did this quickly, I was running late.

Arriving at my first coffee shop book retailer I found I had left my invoice forms at the office. These are usually in the car but had been removed. They had one book remaining and the rule there is no invoice, no book, and no payment. I said I would come back on Monday. At the next retail stop, I found I had not made enough flyers announcing next Friday's book reading and signing. A customer took one of the flyers and announced he was taking it home to remind him to come back next week. Great, but that underscored the need for more flyers. This made a long trip necessary on Monday. Disappointing but not another step in the crash ladder.

I finished my errands and asked Amy if she would like to sit and relax by the fire, with a bit of Port Wine. We did that and fell asleep. We got to the kitchen to start the Chicken and Dumplings at the time we usually sit down to eat. I proceeded to take the thawed chicken thighs out of their freezer bags and discovered one bag contained previously barbecued chicken. Amy was far less than pleased. I rushed to get two uncooked ones from the freezer and began a microwave defrost operation. Then,

"These cans are Cream Of Mushroom, not Cream Of Chicken soup. You have to read the labels on the cans!"

"I'll go to the store at once and get the correct soup."

Amy was close to tears. At the store I read the can labels and found that Cream Of Mushroom was in all but one of the dispensers marked Cream Of Chicken. That was why I had the wrong stuff at home. I informed the store assistant manager of the problem while checking out.

"That explains all the people coming back to get the right soup."

At home things went well until the Dumplings did not rise. They were flat, semi impervious to that great gravy, totally unleavened. Turns out Amy had found a full unopened box of Bisquick in the back of the pantry and had not checked the sell by date. It was more than a year overdue. I ate them out of stubbornness.

So much for horoscopes and four and five star days.

Don't bet on Astrology, think before you leave the office and always read labels.

We laughed about it next day and I thought you would, too.

Wes Zimmerman