Takeout in Kettering

This morning we took the Luck's Mixed Beans and headed south on I-675 to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Ann in Kettering.  We wound up having lunch, and perhaps I'll talk about that, first.  Uncle Bill and I went out to DiSalvo's Deli and Italian Store to pick up sandwiches of an unusually yummy and Italian variety.  Hank stayed with Aunt Ann, and that was probably a good choice, because if he'd gone with us, he would have come back with 67 cannoli, some mousse, and seventeen slices of Italian lemon cake.

Here's the amusing thing, though.  I drove to the deli, which was maybe three miles from Westlawn Drive, and Uncle Bill backseat drove the whole way. It made me feel like I was sixteen again, and believe me, at this age, that's worth a lot.  I just about laughed out loud, and then couldn't tell him what I was laughing at. He's been telling us all how to drive for 35 years.  It's wonderful to know that some things never change.

That's because many other things do change.  I think of my aunt and uncle as they were when they were, well, my age.  Now they're in their 80's; Uncle Bill has lost 30 pounds, Aunt Ann cannot safely go to the refrigerator in the garage because of her walker.  Something about seeing these strong, capable, independent people struggling to manage in their own home makes me feel hollow.  I make jokes about aging, but on a deep, primal level, seeing UB and AA makes me realize how much it sucks.  And we all walk down that path, so the garage we used to haul everything out of and scrub becomes a place we can't even walk into.

Okay, enough of the melancholy.  The other funny story about visiting AA and UB is that a couple of their friends dropped in as we were leaving, and Mrs. Friend said, "Oh, you're the Janet who writes the funny column."  Bwahahahaha.  Maybe.

This evening we're going to Middletown to have dinner with David and Brooke.  I will, I promise, take pictures, because I know how boring it is to be reduced to looking at a can of beans.