HazelAlder of Sleet

Another first in my 74 years--I think, anyway. I may have done it before and forgotten, but I think not. We hosted a Superbowl party! Timothy invited his men's group, and their wives. That would have been four couples. But, as expected, one couple was otherwise occupied. One couple preferred to watch at home. They have a perfectly enormous TV, with all the LotR movies and the MCU movies on a special server, courtesy of their digitally adept son. Guy #3 was unsure if he would make it, because he's been having problems with a medication he has been taking. In the end, he felt pretty good and decided to come, but his wife hardly ever goes out and chose not to on this occasion. And Guy #4 planned to come, and brought beer and chips, but his wife is my friend Strawberry Star. She called me and kinda hinted that unless I really needed her company, she would just as soon stay home and spend a few hours quietly doing things more to her taste than football. So I was thinking just a couple of guests. Nevertheless, being me, I laid in extra stuff. Therefore I was not greatly taken aback when Guy #4 heard from three other people who were looking for a place to watch football, and invited them to come along. They were fun because they were all younger. They also ate a lot. I provided hot dogs (lucky I bought some more) with fixings, buffalo wings (trust me, they were frozen from the store--I wasn't about to cook that from scratch), more chips, dips, and a large array of raw veggies so their stomachs wouldn't completely go to hell with the snack food. That leftover cake came in handy again, and Guy #4 also brought some ice cream.

So, in terms of food and conviviality, we had a great time. Sadly, the Sparrowhawk and I were rooting for the Chiefs, so we must get used to living with disappointment. It actually looked as if we would sink from disappointment all the way to disgrace, but for those last two touchdowns. Oh well. As Bruce Springsteen says, "There's just winners and losers and don't get caught on the wrong side of that line." We enjoyed the company and provided hospitality, and in that, we were the winners. As we stepped out to say farewell to our guests, we got to feast our eyes once again on a clear sky, with Venus, Jupiter, and Mars laid out on a line under the waxing moon, and the sharp blue spark of Sirius standing guard on the side. I left prints of my bare feet in the frost, something I like to do in hopes that it will astonish the mailman. Or someone. Mostly it astonishes me and my feet.