Carpe Another Diem

These onion rings are to die for, but not literally.

This morning I received a phone call asking me to pitch in as a volunteer because their regular person had a stroke. Mabel is an older lady (she told me she was 73 but I guess she meant she was once) who runs everything around these parts: Estate sales, church fairs, local elections, school fundraisers, whatever--there's Mabel smack dab in the middle of it.

South Freeport is a small town, and I'm never in the middle of anything and never will be since I'm from New York and it shows. I'm also a Jew and that shows too, but still I've got a firm grip on the edge of things since I write a news column for one of the local weeklies and had an art gallery in town and then a consignment shop, and so all that combined with the New York Jew thing makes me less than invisible, which I might be otherwise. In fact, since Mabel runs the place and I've had a lunchtime audience with her two times, I guess that makes me someone, although she may have just wanted to see a New York Jew up close.

Anyway, while I never loved Mabel because she's kind of haughty, I've also always thought she's pretty cool-- dressing fabulously like someone decades younger and traveling the world to exotic places with her equally cool  husband who is apparently quite wealthy. Together they live in a lovely old house right in the middle of town--natch--that commands the single best view of the harbor and the outlying islands of the Casco Bay. They say she will be fine, and that's good news.

I thought about all this on my morning walk and decided once again that one never knows and thus must seize the day. To that end, I think when I go to lunch with my friends today I should order those incredibly delicious onion rings that I never let myself eat because they are too fattening. But then again, since eating badly contributes to strokes, I'm not sure if seizing the day would be to eat them or to not eat them. I hope I figure it out soon-- I'm meeting them in an hour.