March 17 - Snow, neighbors, Hawaii

I already posted today, but I was thinking about this morning:

I was leaving to return books to the library, driving down our little road through a channel cut between piles of snow. Suddenly my neighbor Bob ran out and flagged me down. His car was dead and it needed a jump, so I pulled my car over and helped him out. He and his wife just returned to Minnesota two days ago after living in Hawaii for two years. They actually WANTED to come back to Minnesota, which, note to all of you who are far away, is currently piled with tons of snow. I joked that he must be in shock, because they arrived from the tropics right into our biggest snowstorm of the year. And his car was dead from, of course, the cold. Not a Hawaii-type problem.

But he said he was happy to be back, and that landing in the middle of a snowstorm was just what they had hoped for.

The funny story behind all this is that his wife, Bev, is actually my Mom's best friend from high school. She was visiting one day when Bob came over to borrow something. Romance bloomed and Bev and Bob got married. Thus my mom's best childhood friend became my mom's next-door neighbor, 50-odd years after their schooldays in Minneapolis. When Bob and Bev left for Hawaii my mom was sad. Needless to say, Mom will be thrilled that they have moved back.