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about a place like
that?
    I sipped my coffee, burned my tongue, and
grimaced. It was piping hot, as usual.
    “God punished me for my sins, Nancy,” I
said. “I burned my tongue and I’m suffering. I hope you’re
satisfied. See.” I stuck my tongue out at her.
    “Take a drink of this cold water and hold it
in your mouth, Carol,” said Mary Alice. “Roll it around on your
tongue a little and it should feel better.”
    “Once a nurse, always a nurse,” said Nancy.
She reached over and patted my hand. “I forgive you. I was just so
shocked I got a little carried away. You’re not really going to
move, are you?”
    “Not if I have anything to say about it,” I
said. “I plan to be carried out of my house feet first. In a body
bag.”
    Mary Alice recoiled at that. “God, what an
image, Carol.”
    “When we got home from the Geezer Tour, I
sat down and made a list of the pros and cons of moving to an
active adult community.”
    I put my glasses on, then continued. “I made
a list of what needs to happen to keep our house running, and
assigned each task to either Jim or me. Feel free to jump in if
I’ve left anything out. Here’s Jim’s list: lawn and landscaping,
house painting and outdoor upkeep, snow removal, garbage and
recycling. If we moved to an active adult community, Jim wouldn’t
have to do any of this. They’d all be included in the monthly
common charge, which isn’t cheap.”
    I took a quick bite of the special muffin of
the day -- chocolate chip. Yum.
    “Here’s my list: cooking, food service and
cleanup, house cleaning, laundry – although Jim’s taken over some
of that, much to my dismay – changing beds, pet care. These are the
ones I thought of very quickly. Notice anything about my list?”
    “That’s all the things a woman does around
the house every day,” Nancy said. “But I see where you’re going
with this. If you moved into an active adult community, you’d still
have to do all your jobs, right?”
    “That’s right,” I said. “I even asked if
there was a maid service at Eden’s Grove, and the sales agent
looked at me like I was crazy. And I’m not giving up my dogs. I
told Jim that I am not moving to Eden’s Grove – no way, José.”
    “Good for you, Carol,” said Mary Alice. “But
Jenny’s going to be moving out this month, right?”
    “I can’t be selfish about that,” I said.
“Jim and I have loved having her home since last summer. She was
wonderful last year when Jim was in that awful mess about his
retirement coach. I don’t know what I would have done without her.
But it’s time for her to be out on her own again. And I have to
admit, I’m thrilled that she and Mark Anderson are getting so
close. Although I’ve tried not to push the relationship. I doubt
Jenny even knows how much I’d love to see them become a permanent
couple.”
    “Yeah, Carol,” said Nancy with the wisdom of
someone who’s known me since grammar school, “we all know how
subtle you can be when you want something.
    “Not!”
    “Hey,” I protested. “I can be subtle.”
    “Humph,” retorted Nancy. “Manipulative, yes.
Subtle, no.”
    “Anyway,” I went on, determined not to let
Nancy’s needling get to me, “we haven’t seen much of Mark the last
few days. He’s up to his ears in that hit and run accident case.
The one that happened at Fairport Community College last Friday
night.”
    “That was so awful,” Mary Alice said. “I’d
gotten called to work at the emergency room that night, and by the
time the paramedics got that poor girl to the hospital, she was
gone. I can’t imagine what her parents must be going through,
losing a child so tragically.”
    Nancy and I didn’t respond right away. We
were both remembering the premature death of Mary Alice’s husband,
Brian, killed in an auto accident some twenty years ago. It must
have been extra tough for our friend to deal with the young
accident casualty and her grieving family.
    “What I can’t imagine