The Barn Revisited and Small Town Life

We met a family the other day at the rink and it came to light that the wife is a carpenter and her husband works at Dartmouth, coupled with the fact that they have a daughter around Audrey's age who is very nice and clicked with her made for an immediate bonding experience. Now being the real-man-in-training that I am, I couldn't pass up an opportunity for some free advice about building and broached the subject with the mom, Hillary, and then heard nothing from them. Maybe I came on too strong, maybe they felt insulted (she's in the process of a career transition), but I have to confess, I was little bummed.

What makes it awkward is that I knew we'd run into them again because we live in a small town, and sure enough, yesterday we saw Hillary and Anyata, the daughter, at the rink, and clearly there was some cloud hovering above us. I decided to drop it altogether, because they clearly were not comfortable with something and I'd still like to be friends, or at least have our kids be friends. Why does parenthood have to be so complicated.

Anyway, as it turns out, not only did she bring up the issue of the barn (so they did get my email!), but this being a small town and all, she was actually involved in the building of it. Can you believe that? She knows Marty and Scott and apparently they approached her or her brother or something like that and had them install the windows.

I couldn't believe it, the long arm of Marty. So of course she had an intimate knowledge of the barn and could probably dispense any relevant advice, but that ship has sailed, and I am once again on my own. Such is life.

The rink yesterday was hopping, BTW. With school back in, there were dozens of kids for after-care from school and though I was bummed at first, it was a blast. The kids were all nice, especially to Nicholas, and they seemed to have fun. I spent the entire time shoveling the snow off the ice, and let me tell you, it was a bear of a job. I was so tired, but the rink looked good, and the kids had fun, so it goes without saying that it was well worth it.

There is something (a lot of things, actually) that you've gotta love about small town life, and suffice it to say, things like that just don't seem to happen in LA, and I'm not just talking about the snow.

My name is Fred Lee, and until the next time, thanks for reading.