Thursday, August 5, 2010

Brutal Heat and Serendipity

It's funny how life works out, especially in a small town. I mean this in a good way, of course.

We were driving home and A&N mentioned that they really wanted to hang with A&I and they could call them to arrange it. I said sure, give them a call and let me know the details.

Well, as we pulled into the local market to get some rations, I noticed their car parked in the lot, and as I went inside and greeted HH, the kids chatted with I, who was sitting in the car. Little did I know they were plotting something, because they came into the store with a list of demands.

HH was all for it. I told her that we had the big city FM the next day, and we couldn't get the kids until around 7:30, and she said that would be fine. She'd feed them dinner. I offered to make some food for them to eat because I have so much free time on my hands.

It was serendipitous because the weather was supposed to be brutally hot, which it was. It was like the friggin Sahara desert out there. To quote Neil Simon, "It was Africa hot, even Tarzan couldn't take this weather." Fortunately, the kids got to hang with their buddies and not have to endure the brutality of a hot market. Leave that for mom and dad.

That day I had to scramble to get things together for the market and on top of that, make supper for our kids and friends, which I was happy. It is complicated by the fact that they are vegetarians, so it took some creativity, but I was able to whip up some steamed veggie dumplings and sesame peanut noodles, both family favorites.

The market was hotter than heck, and we were fairly miserable but such is the life at the market. There is little relief in sight, you are literally baking out in the hot sun. I had my fan and jump box but it seemed to run out quickly, so we sat there and basked in the heat. Brutal.

Business was decent, and we saw some of our loyal customers who said they came the week before and were disappointed we weren't there. That bums me out, when we let our customers down, but these things happen.

You just do the best you can and keep plugging along.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Colin Stobbart for the pic.

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