It’s good to have wine-drinking friends!  And not necessarily in a way you might think.

Yesterday was our third trip in the last six weeks to go across the river to get our groceries at Fred Meyer’s.  We had placed our order — a big one — several days beforehand, we had been assigned a pick-up time, and we were all set.  Or so we thought.

We went the front road, through Long Beach, which was crowded with traffic.  Dennis Company, in particular, seemed to be doing a bumper business — parking lot and curbside full and many people (none masked) coming and going.  Hmmm.

The pick-up parking lot was almost full so we had a bit of a wait, for our delivery.  When it arrived, the transfer to our trunk went without incident though there seemed to to be a bit of reshuffling toward the end to make room.  It was all done very efficiently while we stayed safely in place inside the car. We went directly home to take care of the refrigerated things asap.

First, though, was Nyel’s transfer from car to wheelchair to get him into the kitchen at the receiving-and-put-away end.  Then, it was my turn to schlepp about a gazillion bags from car to house.  When I opened the trunk to begin, the first thing to greet me was something we hadn’t ordered.  Wine.  Lots of it — six boxes each containing five liters of Rhine wine.  Wow!  Someone was planning a party and it wasn’t us!

Since we are not wine drinkers, I took only one box in to show Nyel and alerted him to be on the lookout for anything else that might be a mistake.  We ended up unpacking 14 big bags and checking off each item against the receipt.  All but five things had arrived — probably the equivalent of one grocery bag.  And, in addition to the wine, there was one bag containing items we had not ordered and had absolutely no interest in.

Nyel called Freddy’s.  Apparently the other party had already called and their order had been re-filled.  The store would replace the things we hadn’t received but said “We can’t take back any of the rest.  You can keep it or dispose of it… whichever you like.

We called friends who we thought might be interested in the wine and maybe some of the other items.  I put them all out on our porch table and in twenty minutes they arrived.  They were glad for the wine and in a few of the groceries and offered to drop the rest off at the Food Bank.  Perfect!

Today we go back across the river to pick up the rest of our order.  Yet another sheltering adventure for the old folks!  Woot! Woot!