I've gotten another All Around the House customer, Mrs. C.B. On Monday I drove her and her husband to the doctor, drove her to the bank, picked up her mail at the post office, went to the seafood specialty store, grocery, and pharmacy for her. She requested that I wait in the doctor's waiting room rather than run the errands while they were being seen, though I offered to do it the other way to save her paying me while not making the best use of my time. This is the second job I've done for her.

Mr. C.B. has alzhiemers disease. He's in pretty good shape for the shape that he's in. He's a WWII vet. He was telling me the story of how his boat got blown up out from under him in the Pacific and he was bobbing around in the open water for hours until an American submarine picked him up. " I don't mind telling you that I was a little frightened out there." he said, matter of factly.

"Well, naturally you would be!" I said.

"But, you know, that was the worst thing that happened. Overall, I couldn't complain. By the time I got out of the hospital the war was over. Even though I was injured - my leg - I had to put it behind me. And if all that hadn't happened I wouldn't have met Mrs. C.B. She was a nurse, you know? And if I hadn't met Mrs. C.B. -why that woulda been aweful!"

Overall, he couldn't complain?! He's still got shrapnel in his leg! I mean, holy cow, his generation not only had a posative attitude: they practically inveneted it!

And, I think it takes a lot of gumption just to get along as an older person in today's world, to say nothing about having a sense of humor. Old age is not for wimps, man. It's a jungle out there of medications with conflicting side effects, bad, inacurate, or unclear medical advice, kids that swipe your bank statements and won't drive you to the doctor....plus the sheer stupidity that we all have to put up with at any age on a day to day basis.

Here's an example. Mrs. C.B. ordered her husband a MedicAlert bracelet, so that if he wanders away from home people can assist him. It came in an envelope with an invoice marked "paid" and a blurb about how great the MedicAlert company is.

It also came with a clasp unlike anything any of us had ever seen before. Possibly, in the past, Mr. C.B. might have figured it out if he were mechanically inclined but he HAS ALZHIEMERS DISEASE! You mean to tell me nobody at the MedicAlert company thought they ought to stick a diagram, or better yet, a little set of directions about how to work this clasp in that envelope? If their printing budget only allowed them to put one thing in there, don't you think that would be it? But no. They put self congratulatory advertising in there.

I admit that I'm not an engineer, but, in a room full of women I'm usually the first one to figure out what's wrong with the copier/fax/phone or see how something goes together. I've assembled furniture before and it's still togther. And, I'm patient with stuff like that. It's a good thing, too, because it took me 15 minutes to figure out how that clasp worked. "This is just like getting dog tags again." I assured Mr. C.B. He didn't say anything, but he looked a little worried about the idea of wearing a bracelet.

Anyway, that's the best work I've had in along time. I felt so alive talking to them, picking out the lowest carb bread ( Mrs. C.B. has diabetes) at the best price, bouncing through the traffic in Manchester with Mr. C.B. announcing "I'm Taurus- the Bull!" at the top of his lungs in the back seat. I was really helping somebody out Mr. C.B. was enjoying the car ride, Mrs. C.B. had someone to talk to, we got all their chores done and figured the bracelet thing out. I can't help but feel like this is what God put me on the earth to do - to make things a little easier for somebody.

Maybe he wants me to write too, and, if He does, I will. And I'll put my whole heart into running The Hub's business and have fun selling Avon. But I hope All Around the House succeeds a little bit...because that was a natural high.