Yesterday Didn't Start Well

When the propane truck arrives at your house before you've finished breakfast, you suspect the day will not go well. Even just getting two hundred gallons of propane can wreck the budget these days. We're hoping for a warm winter, little snow, not much wind.

The second caller of the day was the man who lives to the east of us, a Baptist preacher who is about the nicest guy you;d ever meet. He had a five-gallon "mud bucket" full to within about four inches of the rim with ripe tomatoes. I knew better than to tell him that our tomatoes are producing more than enough.

Husband was doing an errand and when he got home, he carried the bucket into the sun porch, as nonplussed as I over what we would do with them.

Then our friend Jessica, who is sharing our garden patch with us came along to get some squash. We prevailed upon her and her husband to have lunch with us -- and to take the excess of tomatoes home with her. She has close neighbors who aren't gardening.

That took a little of the sting out of having to pay for the propane -- not much, but some.