Life in General, Always Saving Me, I'm Impressed

1. It's one of those warm afternoons of late summer. The ceiling fan lazily ticks its rotations, stirring the air in the shaded bedroom. Outside the open window a tractor is cutting hay, its machinery click, click, clicking back and forth across the field. I fold laundry, lulled by the soft repetitions and slowing heartbeat of a fading summer.
2. Even though it's getting too dark to see, I don't want to go inside yet, so I keep mowing. Steve comes out the front door and walks over to me. I stop and turn off the blades to see what he wants. Silently, he leans over, turns on the mower headlights and smiles. Oh! That helps. I look up and smile back.
3. Dinner conversation:

Tess: " Guess what! I can bench-press 55 pounds!"

Audrey: "Sooo, you can lift the bar."

Tess: "No. The bar weighs 45 pounds."