Today I was a Guest Host.   Not like a gameshow Guest Host.  I was a Guest Host in the literal sense.  We had guests, and I was one of the hosts.

Now, guests can come in many forms, shapes and sizes.  There are good guests, bad guests, those which you know, and total-stranger-guests.  Sometimes they are friends, or family, or perhaps the Pope himself.

This time we were lucky.  Our guests were both good-guests, and good-friends at the same time!

It is easy with people like these.  We talked and laughed.  This whole entire shindig was supposed to be a pool party.  However, the weather felt more like late October, than mid-August.  Nonetheless, the younger kids swam and we older kids watched.  We talked about things like how our bursitis had been acting up, and it sure would be a drag to need a hip replacement.

Like I said.  Us older kids.

But the weather did not deter our spirit of the day.  We just moved our little party indoors…. as the rains came down.

And.  That is the thing about good friends.  It is easy.

You can talk…..pretty much endlessly….about all sorts of things.   From the finer points of puzzle solving, to daycare woes….. and more.

We all agreed that we didn’t want a Pit Bull.  Not for a pet, or for a neighbor’s pet.  With all the fatal pit bull maulings of late, it makes you wonder about the breed.   I know you Pit Bull defenders will say it all depends on how you raise them… and your Pit Bull is as sweet as can be.  Yet, that is exactly what the last women said, after her mother was killed by the family pit bull.  I can’t remember a time in recent history where there was a death by Pomeranian.  Or even death by Shih Tzu.

At any rate, the conversation when from  things like heroin addiction, to kitty leukemia,  to crop conditions, to prize winning roses.

We managed to make time for eating lots of spaghetti, and chocolate cream pie, and such.  It was all good.

And then….. like the frosting on a cake… ….. those good guests helped to clean up.  They did it with an air of the nonchalant.  Like they felt right at home.

And I guess that is….. the one big point of this tonight.  Good friends are certainly fun.  But at the same time, they are also comfortable.  Like your favorite chair.  And.  It always feels like you are right at home.

There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.  –Jane Austen

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. — Douglas Pagels