They Have a Pill For That?

When the doorbell rings in the middle of the day, I can be fairly certain it’s a neighbor needing assistance with something – often technology based. I really don’t mind this as I read that a fulfilling retirement should consist of a third of your time spent with family, a third spent on community, and a third spent on yourself. I chalk the neighbors up to community.

Often, it’s cell phone related (“I usually mash this button, but that’s not working”); or help needed with something like a digital frame (“My grandchild sent this and I’m not sure what the heck I’m supposed to do with it”); or perhaps it’s the always popular, “I may have ordered something on the phone/computer by accident” situation.

I’ve even encountered the unbelievable, “Can you help me? I think I threw out my savings bonds.” (Spoiler Alert: She did, and there’s actually a U.S. Treasury Department process for it.)

Recently though, the request was for help with for an upcoming cruise. It was too early to check in so I told them I would try in a day or two and get back to them.

After checking them in as much as I could I headed to their house to get the rest of their information. Their air conditioning had gone out overnight, so they were in a little bit of a tizzy. As I stood in their hot kitchen listening to them yell at one another about where the (expired) passports were, and how they had trouble with the name on the birth certificate last time, and just about everything else one can imagine, I ran out the door, saying, “No worries, I’ll come back.”

A little later the husband brought over the paperwork. On his way out, he said, “I better get back and apologize to my wife for yelling at her.”

“Aww,” I said. “Blame the heat.”

“She’ll say, ‘What was your excuse yesterday?’”

“Oh, sorry.”

“I don’t know what it is anymore,” he said. “She could say hello and it aggravates the hell out of me. The doctor says it’s normal at our age, but if it gets any worse, there’s a pill he can give me.”

Who knew they had a pill for that?

Besides helping our “community,” my secret hope is that all the assistance hubby and I provide is being stockpiled as “goodwill” or “karma” that will come back to us someday. Hopefully, we never need that grouchy pill, but maybe we’ll have kind neighbors that will help us if we do.