On important things, Jim and Susan were almost always on the same page and when not could usually get there without contention. However, they did argue about stuff that didn’t count much. Those fights were almost always funny. In one of our phone conversations after Jim died, Susan told me tearfully that she didn’t know how she could spend the rest of her life without the funny fights. She sent me this description of one they had last winter.

It was a Saturday morning in the depths of last winter. We had a petrillion errands to run, so set out in Ranger Rick, shinydome’s beloved 1990 Ford pickup. By the time we had lurched down our avenue, the township road, and the county road ‚Äì a distance of not more than two miles ‚Äì to reach State Highway 55, I was not sure I had a filling left in my head.

“Rick’s lurching,”I said.

“It’ll be better when he warms up,”shinydome responded.

“Would that be in a few miles or Spring?”I asked, possibly a bit snottily.

No response. Disdain clear.

As we neared our first stop, the ride had definitely gotten smoother. We did our errand, quite congenially working together. It took maybe 11 minutes.

We then lurched through the parking lot, back onto the highway, and eastward a while before smoother set in again. This pattern continued through three or four stops. I held my tongue. Truly. At least about the lurching. But during one of the longer stretches between stops, I broached a related topic. Here’s how that convo went:

FB: Have you noticed that we rarely, if ever, have both Carmen and Rick on the road? Maybe we should think about replacing two older, not so great vehicles with one really good one.
SD: I’ve actually thought that myself.
FB: What kind of vehicle are you thinking about?
SD: SUV. Ford. The big one.
FB: You’ve got to be kidding. They are terrible gas guzzlers and much more vehicle than we would ever need. Besides, we’d have to get a gun rack and one of those ribbon things that says, “Support Our Troops” to put on the back
SD: You are such a bigot.
FB: So.

A few minutes of silence.

FB: And do you know how much one of those honkers costs?
SD: Thirteen, fourteen thousand.
FB: You have been living under a rock. Multiply by three and a half and you might be close.
SD: No way.

At this point, we were near the Ford dealer in Buffalo, MN. shinydome swung Rick onto the lot, parked, and in we went. He paled as he looked at the sticker. Out we went, quickly, and began the homeward lurching.

FB: It is not cute.
SD: We are not spending that kind of money based on cuteness.
FB: And it doesn’t even come in green.
SD: You’ve never wanted a green car.
FB: And I don’t now. However, if we are going to spend that kind of money, we should at least be able to get a green one if that’s what we want.
SD: You’ve passed rational.

Once home, I went online and researched some smaller SUVs. I printed out the pictures and info for three of them and presented same to himself in the order I preferred them, my favorite being the Honda CR-V.

We both spent the rest of the afternoon doing our own things, coming together again just before dinner.

SD: Well, I’ll give you this much; the Honda is cute.
FB: Very.
SD (with that s___-eating grin spreading from ear to ear): It’s just too bad it doesn’t come in green.

Yesterday, I traded Carmen in on a silver Honda CR-V. His name is Shiny Stochl. shinydome would smile.

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