Day 3 - 163 -- Hosting Guests

The sun shone most of the day with some darker clouds moving closer into the evening. Rain is expected overnight and into tomorrow accompanied by a slight temperature drop. I didn't go outside today except to trim some chives for supper. I cooked the rest of the meal today -- rice, gai lan, apple crisp -- and reheated the chicken curry that has been allowed to sit overnight (in the fridge) for the flavours to come together. While prepping this all, the regular Saturday laundry and cleaning were on tap, making for a rather full day. Supper went very well and I had a great visit with friends. We've not had a good sit down visit for several months, so this was a treat. The wine was a new red that turned out to be perfect for the spicy entree.

We were unsure if rain might begin before my friends headed home, since they'd walked down. Luckily their walk home would have been dry. That conversation made me recall times when we'd go out or others would come to the house only to have the weather turn during the evening -- a blizzard, blowing snow or sharp temperature  drop made travel home tricky or impossible. Many people from outside of town were used to packing a 'go bag' whenever they came into town. People were prepared to host overnight visitors, too. The whole concept of being 'storm stayed' is one prairie people are most familiar with -- it might mean being stuck at school or work when a storm arrived during the day -- unexpectedly or with greater ferocity than forecast. Most schools and workplaces are more tuned in to weather forecasts now than in past decades. We had few snow days that I recall -- we slogged through the snow or walked against the winds regularly. It seems we are more ready to avoid possible injury -- or perhaps we fear litigation more now.

Pondering times with overnight guests after an evening visit brought me to a song. <surprise> This one line came to mind and made me smile. While the song actually deals with a different type of situation, it still sort of fits the theme -- well that one line does, anyway. Enjoy!

Crash Here Tonight -- Toby Keith