If it’s July and it’s hotter than Hades, then it’s:
- Time to head to the lake
- Time to head for the hammock with a book
- Time to do ANYTHING but schlep groceries
If you picked any of the above, you are a-ok in my book. Today, however, marked the beginning of the Christmas season for those of us who volunteer for the local Christmas Basket Program. That meant that no matter what the calendar said, and no matter what the thermometer read, it was time to start squirreling away the canned goods.
I know there are plenty of food closets that work at this day in and day out, year round. It’s not like folks get hungry only once a year. It just so happens that this is the particular organization that I’ve become involved with. Its goal is to provide 500-600 needy families in our area with two weeks’ worth of food for the holidays, and toys for their children. We’re just starting to stock up on the food we’ll need to meet those demands.
Volunteers drove to Sacramento for the first trailer-load of canned goods and a few of us showed up to help unload.
I walked and in found myself face-to-face with a neighbor who I see very often on my daily walks with Butterfly and the pack of dogs.
He laughed when he saw me and asked, “What are you doing here? Are you everywhere?”
“I would have hitched a ride if I’d known you were coming!” I replied.
It’s a small world.
About a half dozen of us made short work of the job. We laughed and joked and caught up on what we’d been doing since we’d seen each other (last Christmas).
As quickly as we had appeared, once the job was done, we just as quickly retreated to our own lives. But you can bet that when the call goes out again, we will come out of the woodwork to take care of business. Hey – Christmas is only 5 months away!
