On Wednesday (06/15/22) Tom and I did double duty: we met a former colleague for lunch and also delivered Jim Saylor his iPad which he had inadvertently left in the back seat of my car a week before. Jim is cleaning their Lebanon condo for sale (they have to vacate by 06/30) and neither of us had time to make the entire trip. But Middletown, our eating place for lunch, was perfectly situated to save us both many miles.
I hadn't seen Shirly Belcher for many years. We both freelanced for the Dayton Daily News at the same time. I "retired" in 2011. We've exchanged a few e-mails over the years ... but not enough of them to really keep up with each other. And I wanted her to meet Tom.
We met at the Cracker Barrel near 122 and I-75. That's where Tom and I first met in 2014 so it was a familiar place and one we enjoy anyway.
Shirley is a wonderful writer and I miss seeing her articles. She backed away from freelancing soon after I did. But she's currently exploring her options and I expect to soon see her in print again. Now that we're back in contact we'll plan get-together's now and then and keep in much closer touch.
What did I eat? I ordered my usual vegetable plate:
Tom calls it my "yellow plate": deep fried okra, hash brown casserole, macaroni and cheese and slaw. Often it's served in small bowls but this time they also used a beautiful blue and white plate. Cracker Barrel is certainly a good meeting place and makes an enjoyable meal. Only the acoustics are bad (it's very hard to hear others at the table).
So we had a successful day. We were able to return Jim's iPad (and somewhat thwart the high gas prices) and we had a leisurely meal with Shirly. Good food and good friends all around.
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