Sometimes life gives you really tasty lemons

It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. The sun was high in the sky with not a cloud in sight. The chilly morning had finally settled on being an 18 degree afternoon. I dropped our car off at the mechanic shop and headed over to Good Earth natural foods to wait while they changed my headlights. After selecting a gluten-free slice of pizza and a greens drink I found a spot on the patio where I could watch the three (!) mechanics all working on my car gesticulating and shouting loudly enough in Spanish that I could almost hear them from where sat half a block away. Then they got a jack. Apparently I'm not the only one who has trouble changing the lights on this car.

When I showed up to pick up my car the patriarch of the garage sidled over to me with a bulb in his out-stretched hand. "Why? Why they made your car have bulb like BMW?"

I paid for my yuppie-bulbs but as I was turning to leave the mechanic appeared in the doorway again heaving a large box full of lemons "here, you take?"

In the end he made sure I had a grocery bag full of lemons from his tree.

When I got home, the 8 year old boy who lives next door was standing in the driveway with a rake "I'm clearing out your garden" he announced proudly "so you can plant things here." He was indeed clearing out a leaf pile I'd hidden behind the Wisteria.

An hour later the rake was abandoned for dinner time but there was a big dent in the leaf pile. I split my bag of lemons into two and placed the second bag on the doorknob of his house. Above me in the window he and his four year old sister waved to me waved to me gleefully from their seats at the dinner table.