Lunch Out

Shay was suspicious. First Russ changed out of his t-shirt and into a collared shirt. Then I came in from gardening and took a second shower and put on a dress. Shay nervously followed us around. She hadn’t seen us this cleaned-up in the middle of the day in months.

Russ asked me if I was ready to go. Shay ran to the garage door on the word go. We asked her if she needed to go out. We let her potty, but asked her to come back inside. She stood by the car and did not budge. So Russ and I had to go back inside the house and close the door, leaving her out alone.

The trick worked and she came inside thinking she must have been wrong about why we were clean and dressed. That’s when Russ and I made our get away, calling out, “Be good, we’ll be home soon.”

This was the first lunch out in Durham Russ and I have had together in 15 months. We went to the Durham Food hall, down by the farmer’s market because they just recently opened up for inside seating. There are a number of little stands in the Food Hall and we thought it would be nice to eat amongst other humans who were also dressed in regular, read non-athletic, clothes.

After ordering from four different stands, two for food and two for drinks we secured a two-top and had an adult conversation like we used to have many years ago. We saw our friend David who was out with his son so it was a real Durham day, where you can’t go out without seeing someone you know.

We were back home within the hour and Shay was no worse for the time alone, but she has stayed close by one or the other of us for the rest of the day. It is going to be a long haul to retrain her to be OK when we both are out.

As for us, lunch out was a treat, but as Russ says, it doesn’t really beat my cooking. I am making a watermelon, avocado, basil, mint and goat cheese salad with some crushed peanuts for dinner along with grilled salmon and homemade corn bread baked in a cast iron pan I got from my parents. Russ is right. Dinner home is still better, but seeing humans out having fun was exciting too, except for Shay.