Why on earth?

So Montreal has a fairly new electric train service called the REM (Réseau Électrique de Montréal). It is buggy. There are stoppages regularly - it's a great idea, but someone hasn't figured out how to do their job yet.

Well, yesterday there was a terrible stoppage. Nobody was hurt, but a few hundred people were stuck on the tracks for several hours and had to be evacuated - get this - by jumping over a two-foot gap between two trains to get from their stuck train to the new one that pulled up alongside it.

There was only one train that was stuck - that one, but the entire platform all over the island went down for four hours.

Now, I was waiting at one of the stations to pick up Boyfriend from work. He takes the REM all the time, and usually misses all the problems because he usually goes in at 6:30 in the morning and comes home at 4:00 in the afternoon before anything can go wrong. But yesterday he had worked late and got stuck with the rest of the commuters.

We were texting each other, he letting me know the announcements kept saying that service would resume in a few minutes, me letting him know I saw an ambulance, fire truck, and empty buses speeding along the reserve lane headed in his direction. I spoke to my friend L who has the REM app, and she told me the whole platform was down.

I'd been waiting for Boyfriend for about 45 minutes when I decided to call Hubby to let him know what was going on. He listened carefully while I gave him all the details of all the conversations, thought carefully, and then said:

    "Well, I've had a snack, so it's okay."

I looked at the phone in my hand and said "What?!"

Because, in his male privileged mind, I must have been calling to tell him dinner would be delayed!

Because why the heck else would I possibly be calling him?!

Why indeed!

 

Hubby's New Math

Bridge cards are narrower than poker cards, because you have to hold 13 of them in your hand all at once.

The lovely set of bridge cards from Budapest bought as a gift for me by two dear friends has begun to wear out under the weekly use for rousing good games of bridge with me and "my bridge ladies" from the local churches. They've begun to get folded in corners, which will never do for bridge!

So I searched the internet for 90 seconds and found all the bridge cards are way overpriced, but I needed a new set NOW, so I selected a set from Amazon for $43.00. I gave the link to hubby, because he has Prime and doesn't pay delivery charges. "Ok," I was told.

A few days pass, and no cards turn up. I query him.

"Oh, I found something BETTER," he says.

Uh-oh.

He had found sets of bridge cards (they always come as two decks together in a set) for $16! Great!

But oh no, there was a delivery charge of $16.00.

(Do the math with me people: 16+16=32. I'm still coming in at under the original $43, good deal!)

However, Hubby likes BARGAINS and SALES. He kept digging on that site to find out how to get himself free delivery and LO-- all he has to do is order $80 worth of merchandise!

So that's what he does.

Five sets of bridge cards arrive. That's ten decks of cards.

I reminded Hubby that the ladies I play bridge with are all in their eighties, and there is NO WAY we will use up five sets of bridge cards in our respective lifetimes!

Since I informed him that under no circumstances was I going to pay him $80, he hinted that there could be a Birthday Present involved in this transaction.

Great, I think, here goes the conversation between me and any pal:

    "What did your husband give you for your birthday Debbie?"

    "Ten decks of cards."

   

???