SHERBERT AND OTHER THINGS

"I’d like to think that there will be ‘something new’, but I cant figure out what it might be."

My neighbor is in and out of the hospital. She can barely walk. If she goes back to the hospital within 90 days, they'll put her in a nursing home (at whose expense is unknown). Fo around 6 months now, I've been getting her mail down the road and taking it to her. Last night she called, asking (uncharacteristically) for a favor to go to the village store and pick up three tubs of sherbert that were being held there for her. It was freezing, and there were piles of slippery snow on the road, and I wondered why anyone would want sherbert on a night like this. But my wife drove me to the store. (I had loaned my 23 year-old car out to another neighbor whose car broke down.) The sherbert lady slipped me (unbeknownst in the snowy confusion) $5 beyond the price of the product (for which she also overpaid me). I'm hoping not to be asked for too many more favors. I have a wonderful, able partner, and seem to be able to do without villagers' help. I go on tirelesslessly about the serious times acomin, and how we need to get involved in preparing, but the response is frustrating. If people could hear me, though, instead of continuing their ignorantly blissful foolishness, our village might weather a future storm or two.