Loose Ends

I think summer is way too long. It is too hot to be outside, and after several weeks of being cooped up, my other half and I only agree on one thing: this house is too small.

He talked to his brother for an hour on the phone the other night. I asked him what my sister-in-law is up to these days. He said he didn't know. "What did you talk about for a whole hour?"

"The new DVD he has on correcting his golf swing," my other half said. For a whole hour? I didn't say that out loud.

"Well, how is he doing?" I tried again.

"Fine, I guess. We just talked about golf," he said.

What is it about men and talking? Is there a daily limit on words for males? When he comes home, I want to know who he saw and what they said. And I want to tell him all about running into Sandie and what she told me she did last week. He's not insensitive, but my other half is just not interested unless NASA called her about the rocket she made out of green bean cans and launched in her back yard.

To get out of the house, we set off in separate directions to run errands. He had seven stops on his list; I had two. He called me on my cell three hours later and wanted to know where I was. "I stopped at the hair salon to get some conditioner and picked out some birthday cards at the drugstore."

"Those weren't on your list," he pointed out.

"I know, but they were things I needed to do," I explained patiently. "Then I stopped at the bank to get some cash and ran into the wallpaper store to see if they had anything with mushrooms on it."

He totally ignored that comment and asked if I had gotten to the department store and the garden shop.

"Not yet. I am going to the library next for books on landscaping for fall and then I am going to swing by the shoe store to see what they have for tennis."

"I thought you were just going to two places," my other half said. "Why don't you put all this stuff on your list to begin with? Then you could run your errands in order and save time."

Well, we were on cell phones so I decided not to try to explain how I think before I wore out the battery so I changed the subject.

"I ran into Brenda at the wallpaper store. She wants something new for her bathroom."

My other half mumbled something about that being a good place for the mushrooms. "I'm headed for the garden shop to get something to perk up those geraniums," I said.

Finally done in by the heat, I went home and dumped my packages on the counter. "Did you pick up the weed killer at the garden shop?" he asked.

Oops!