a little help here

Over the years, Ben and I have brought various and amazing things home in (and on) our little cars. Ben bought a dining room table and four chairs at Hartville over thirty years ago, and strapped the table on the roof of his Toyota and drove it home. The chairs were in the back seat and the trunk, I assume. We have brought home overstuffed second-hand chairs and old floor model radios. We bought an odd sofa-like piece of furniture one time that was really two long, narrow pieces of upholstered foam rubber with two similarly covered wedges for back rests. We roped that baby to the top of the car and got it safely home without it going airborne even once.

When Julie and I bought a tv several years ago, the box was way too huge to fit anywhere in my car. With the help of some skeptical stockboys, who laughed at my Swiss Army knife but in the end had to admire its efficacy, we got the television out of the box and into the back seat of the car. We have brought many Christmas trees home, sometimes on the roof of the car and other times protruding from the trunk.

It doesn't work 100% of the time, however. We made so many purchases at a nearby antique mall when we first moved here that we had to have the big pieces delivered. As it was, we chipped the large mirror we had wedged in the back seat. Our purchase today stymied us, as well. Ben and I decided that it was time to replace the glass-topped table and four chairs we had out on the deck. We bought the set along with the house when we moved in almost ten years ago now, and it was definitely showing its age. We had already replaced the cushions, but the chairs have been losing their bolts over the years and sometimes slip in an alarming way when one is seated in them. (I won't even go into the time the big umbrella blew over the roof of the house during a storm.)

Ben and I headed out to Home Depot with the gift certificate my brother gave us for Christmas, and almost immediately found the set we wanted. We were thrilled. We put everything on a dolly and wheeled it out to our car. The table top is 44" x 44", and there was no way that was going anywhere on or in our car. We wheeled our purchases back into the store, and asked to have them delivered. A man waiting for help at the service desk turned to us. "Where do you live? I'll put them in the back of my truck and drive them to your house." We didn't know what to say. He insisted. He was driving to Kent, anyway, he said, to his son's house.

Soon we were loading our table and chairs into the back of his pickup truck along with a big roll of pink insulation and four big window shutters. We told him where we lived, and drove home. Ben voiced the concern we both felt as we drove along. "I hope he's honest. I hope he doesn't rip us off." "I have to believe everything will be fine," I told him. "That's how I have to live my life."

The set looks great on the deck. I can't wait to eat out there.