A Nice Quiet Lunch

Ah, what could be more relaxing than a nice quiet lunch of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches in the summer shade by the lake? Tall grass and lonely trees come to mind… maybe gentle waves crashing on a sandy beach… maybe a light afternoon rain deep in the forest. Let’s see, what other soothing noises can my alarm clock make… crickets perhaps? Lately though, it wouldn’t take much to find a more relaxing spot than the lake where I eat lunch often.

There are two things disrupting my lunchtime retreat, and neither of those things are the quality of the food. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches are a treat at anytime, and I’ve finally found a bread that brings out the nuttiness of the peanuts and the sweetness of the jelly. Stroehman’s Whole Wheat cannot be beat! It’s also good for Grilled Cheeses, which I recently fell in love with all over again.

The first major deterrent is by no means the fault of the lake itself. It has just been really, really hot. Even in the shade, with a regular breeze coming from off the water and a can of cold soda in my hand, it doesn’t take long before I can feel the sweat dripping down my back. Then you have to decide if you should try to catch the sweat by tightening your shirt or just let it slowly make its way all the way down. I’m always amazed how far down it can go.

It’s been so hot that several times I’ve tried to illustrate how hot it is by saying that my wife and I skipped out on going to the opera because my car was struggling to cool off. It is a true story, yet, nobody has asked me why we had tickets to go to the opera in the first place, which makes me wonder what people think of me. I kind of like that the opera doesn’t seem too far out of the realm of possibility for a guy like me.

The heat and sweat I can deal with, but my usual quiet eating spot now has been invaded by large, orange machinery and yellow caution tape. The machine is so loud that I’m having trouble describing it. Imagine the sound of someone weedwacking from inside a space shuttle launch and you’ll get an idea of how loud it is.

The first day it was there, I assumed it was just a temporary thing, which was confirmed by an employee that I ran into on the third day. Apparently some pump broke somewhere else on the lake, so they have to use this blaringly loud one until it’s fixed. I was assured that it shouldn’t take more than a week.

It’s now been two full weeks, and today somebody finally came to check on it wearing giant earphones. A turn here and a turn there, and my heart filled with hope that maybe it would at last be silenced, or at least switch to something more soothing, like a babbling brook or perhaps crickets. I would have even taken ear-piercing opera notes! But the machine only roared louder… and I cut my lunch short.