Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Miscommunitationing

I just went over to an Amish neighbor's house to get some maple syrup. I asked for it and she asked how much I wanted. "A couple quarts." I said.

"Just a couple? So a half gallon?" she said and sent her son out to the ice-house to get it.

Hmmm, that's different,
I thought, usually they have it right down in the basement... and they must only have larger bottles left instead of quart jars...

"I thought I might be too late in the year to get it," I said. "I'm glad you still have some."

"Oh yeah, we just made it a month or so ago and it keeps well in the ice house. We had to run over to get some more ice down the road, but it's keeping just fine."

"Oh wow! I've never heard of that!" I thought they made it all in the spring... "I didn't know it would keep like that so you can just cook it up when you want some..."

She gave me a quizzical look, "Well, as long as you have ice... I would suppose you could do the same with the freezer..."

Just then her son came in with... a jug of apple cider.

Confusion reigned for a moment, then I realized my slip and sputtered, "Oh! Uh... I mean... Did I say 'cider'? Oh dear, I meant to say 'syrup'! Oh, I'm so sorry... I must have seen your sign for 'cider for sale' and I had that in my head..."

She enjoyed a hearty laugh at my expense and went down to the basement for some syrup. "I thought it was strange that you wanted a couple quarts of cider" she said and chuckled some more.


Now go back and read that again with the understanding that she thought I wanted cider and laugh at what a ding-dong I appeared to be (and AM, actually...).


Oh, how we all did laugh.


1 comment: