MY WEEKEND

I love the weekends. There are no expectations. I cleaned my bathroom then headed upstairs to do my laundry. While it was spinning I pulled a 500 piece puzzle to see what I could accomplish while the machines do their work. Maria was the first to show. Why did you get such a small puzzle? Here we go again. Because I thought I might finish it while my laundry was going. I wanted to do that one closer to the Fourth of July. That’s only a month away. You should have waited. I didn’t wait, so what to you want me to do. Oh, go ahead. I guess it won’t hurt anything. I didn’t think it would.

A couple of other women came along and they all took off for the day. I didn’t even ask were they were going. It may be heartless, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to be invited. I didn’t want to know and I don’t want the details the next time I see them. The weekend is mine.

Chas arrived a little later and began to talk while I picked away at the puzzle. We got talking about teen years. Apparently he spent some time in jail – a state facility. That’s usually major. He talked more about life in the jail and never mentioned what he did. He made it sound like fun. I have never thought of prison as fun. I always joked it would give me free board and room for the rest of my life (and there were times I needed that), but I never really wanted to try it out. At the time he was incarcerated the state was very active in training the inmates for future occupations. It was definitely a different day or a minimum-security prison as they were offering classes in auto shop, woodworking, plumbing, and sheet metal. I gulped. These all have dangerous tools. He laughed that even with the training they still could not get jobs in any of those industries when they were released because they were felons.

I had arrived in the puzzle area about 11:00 a.m. When Chas and I finished talking, it was 4:00. No wonder I was hungry. Chas deals with a lot of depression. I was worried that he was upset because Maria seemed to take over the care of his gardens. In fact she was bragging this morning about all the people she was helping by watering their plants. So I asked if they requested her help. No, I was just being helpful. She then gave a number of reasons why each of them needed her help. She never asked, or offered the service. She just did it. That should bring us to garden wars by Monday.

Not only did my clothes get dry, I finished the puzzle and connected with Chas on a deeper level. Now I brace myself for accusations that I didn’t leave any of the puzzle for others to work on.

No I didn’t. I guess I better be sent to my room for the rest of the weekend. However, I plan to sneak out for church.