At the Home & Garden Show Yurt Break-Down
The scene: Rick and Erika (representing Blue Ridge Yurts) and I are breaking down my yurt for delivery to a storage unit until I get my home site cleared and a deck foundation built for it.
Rick, out of the blue, pauses in his disassembly to say:
“Did you know that when Erika was a teenager she was such a big Lord of the Rings fan that she named her hamster Gandalf? Have you ever heard of anyone so nerdy?”
Erika: “Heyyyy!”
Me: “In my 20s, I was such a big LOTR fan that I named my little grey rabbit Gandalf.”
Erika <high-fiving me>: “Ha! So there, Rick!”
Me <continuing>: “And I named my 1982 Ford Mustang Shadowfax. I think it was the Escort wagon I called Samwise because it was my faithful companion on all my adventures in my 30s. I later named my Toyota 4Runner Frodo. Oh! And my sister and I used to write each other letters in Elvish. And somewhere in a box is a notebook with Dwarvish runes — which, by the way, is only a slight variation of the Anglo-Saxon FUTHARK, if I remember correctly.”
Rick and Erika <gaping>: “…”
Rick <sounding slightly awed>: “I think you win.”
Me <smugly>: “Yes, yes I do.”
Erika: “Whoa…”
(Heck, and I’m not even the biggest LOTR fan I know.)
Rick, securing the window covers before taking down the sides of the yurt, while Erika and I start on the cables.
Small Conceits 