Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Dinner or Supper

I say dinner, Bob says supper. In the spirit of the dysfunctional Hillin kitchen I have yet another tale to tell.

For a while now Bob has been fixated on 'supper.' He starts quite early in the day asking me what we're having for 'supper.' It seems to me food is the #1 topic of conversation in this house lately. All this talk about 'supper' is a little annoying.

I figure if we have a good meal at lunch (which he calls dinner) then it's everyone for themselves for something lite to eat for dinner/supper. That worked for years but now it doesn't seem to be working so well.

This sent me to Pinterest looking for recipes I could use for lite suppers (he doesn't want leftovers). He's quite excited that I'm now fixing 'supper.' Given his need to 'help' with everything I try to figure out something he can do in the preparation of 'supper.' He wants to know as early as possible so he can get his task done early in the day. Today his job is to peel half a cucumber, slice it, and put it in a baggie in the fridge.

Breakfast is set in stone so I don't have to worry about that. Sometimes Bob asks before he goes to bed what we're going to have for lunch the next day. Regardless, one of the first things I do when I get my first cup of coffee is decide what we'll have for lunch, and now dinner/supper, that day because when he gets up that's going to be the first thing he wants to talk about.

The other day he had a little 'sinking' spell and wanted me to postpone going to the grocery store until later until he felt better and could go with me. I caught him asleep in his recliner and decided to see if I could slip quietly out the door and escape to the grocery store without him, not.

The second I started to turn the door handle his eyes popped open and he wanted to know where I was going. I was caught. We took off like two dry land terrapins headed to the grocery store. There I gave him a small cart to push and I took a small cart and we went separate ways. I know what he buys routinely so I sent him to get those things and I got the items on the list we don't routinely buy. We met back in the register area to check out. It's amazing but we almost never duplicate.

After we got home and I'd put things away he commented on how well he thought it all went. Said it didn't bother him at all. I stood there thinking "why would any fool go to the grocery store if they didn't have to." That man does love grocery stores.

26 comments:

  1. This is too funny! We call it dinner here too. I'm pretty sure we called it dinner in Illinois too. My hubby also wants a say in all our grocery shopping as well.

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    1. In the South, many years ago, people said 'supper' I think. I can't believe how important food and grocery stores are in Bob's life. I hate grocery shopping.

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  2. Haha. Bob's grocery shopping is so funny. I agree with you - why would you grocery shop if you didn't have to.

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    1. The man is obsessed with grocery stores.

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  3. Maybe Bob likes the store for the same reason I do...to people watch. I also love reading labels and seeing what's new. Maybe he's bored and getting out of the house to a familiar and predictable place is just where he's at in life.

    My husband grew up with 'super' and I grew up with 'dinner.'

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    1. Part of the reason I don't push Bob to stop going to the grocery store. It's a social time for him. There are checkers that know him and make over him, and he always finds somebody he can engage in conversation. He needs some social outlet time and the grocery store is his place. He could make it much easier for me if he'd get on one of the motorized carts and scoot around the store but no, he wouldn't do that for anything.

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    2. My husband was exactly the same way about the store being a social time. He couldn't use the motorized carts and I'm glad he didn't want to because he wouldn't have been trustworthy using one. But he loved to sit up by the checkout stands in his own wheelchair where people would talk to him. Some of the clerks used to make over him, too.

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  4. Tell Bob he is welcome to come here and do my grocery shopping for me. :)

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    1. The problem is he's no longer able to do the grocery shopping. He is 84 and has health problems that make it necessary for me to do the driving, buying groceries and most of the cooking. He did all that for about 40 years and is having a very hard time giving it up.

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    2. I'm very sorry to hear it, Linda. I believe someone said that growing old isn't for cowards. So very true.

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  5. Does Bob have any hobbies? Maybe he's 'fixated' on supper because it gives him something to think about.

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    1. He's never had any hobbies other than watching TV. Cooking and running the kitchen were his hobbies I suppose. Like mountain climbing, there comes a time you just can't do it anymore.

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    2. DH has no hobbies either. He does like television, oh, and he likes to shop too. How funny.

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  6. I hope that along with being frustrated and aggravated, you can also laugh. This does read like a comedy routine! Kinds of reminds me of the old man character on that long-ago show, Laugh In.
    I guess sooner or later, if we live long enough, we will all get there, wanting to do things we can't and fixated on the small pleasures, like what's for supper.

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    1. If I didn't laugh I'd sit and cry so I try to stay as light hearted as I can. I often look at him and think as frustrated as I get with him it's so much better than not having him. After all, he doesn't want to be a problem. Besides, what else do I have to do at this time in my life?

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  7. I also love to watch the flowers, and flower arrangements. Seldom buy them...too lazy to clean the vases.

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    1. I love looking at the flowers but I never buy them because Bob doesn't like them shedding petals on table tops. There's also the fact that I'm too tight to spend money on cut flowers.

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  8. On the farm it was always dinner and supper. Over the years it's become lunch but not dinner.

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    1. Red, you are indeed right. On the farm it was dinner and supper. I'm not sure when I began to use dinner instead of supper. Probably after I moved to the city.

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  9. I am just so impressed with the love and patience you have for your husband!

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    1. By the way, it's supper for us! But we do live in Texas! Our children call it dinner, though!

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    2. Bob, is a true Texan so he's sticking with supper. I just try to keep in mind that as frustrating as things get sometimes it's still so much better than not having him with us. He will leave a super sized hole in our lives so we need to fill up on him while we can.

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  10. My Uncle Bill, in his later years, always asked my aunt what they would have for breakfast before going to bed. Mike always asked what I had in mind for supper. It seemed to be more important to him as time went on. But he had no interest in going to the grocery store. I say lunch and supper but everyone else I know days dinner for the evening meal. Dinner is what we used to have after church on Sundays.

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    1. Perhaps supper is a man thing. I agree with you that we used to say Sunday Dinner. Not sure when I switched from supper to dinner.

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  11. You really are so patient with him and it seems shopping is his entertainment. According to the definition, I suppose I eat dinner (my main meal at noon) but no longer have supper since my evening meal is banana and cereal making it a really late breakfast.

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    1. A bowl of cereal and a banana sounds like a wonderful way to bring closure to the day. My parents always ate cereal for dinner/supper/late breakfast.

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