Free Sprinkles

I was in New York again this weekend.  Visiting Harald.  His nephew told us if we were going to come again, we should come sooner rather than later.  We got the soonest flight we good to Albany.  We spent a long time with Harald in the nursing home Friday and then all day Saturday from morning until night.  I'm glad I could go and be with him and hold his hand and just be together for a while. 

After an emotionally draining day on Saturday my friend Steff (who I went with) and I stopped at a gas station, looking for ice cream, on the way back to the motel. 


We were a little punchy going in there.  There was a bearded gentleman sitting at a booth who I kept trying to engage in delightful banter, smiling at him, directing my excited ice-cream related commentary his way.

Nothing. Not even a smile from this guy. Actually, I think he sneered at me.

We were very much in want of ice cream though and we had planned on going to the local ice cream parlor which was closed by the time we got there much to our disappointment.  But at this gas station, they actually had home made ice cream served behind the counter.  Tons of flavors! 

We hadn't noticed this at first and so we were excitedly digging in the freezer case through the pints, exclaiming loudly at all the flavor options (in between each flavor announcement, I looked at the friend I was trying to make but he just stared at me pointedly, unsmiling).  When we'd each chosen a pint, we turned to pay and lo and behold ....  this is when we noticed the options for cones and cups, and fresh packed pints, and even more flavors. I gasped. 
"Look" Steff said.
"Whoah!" I said.
We quickly put our pints back and got ourselves some samples.  I sampled the Firecracker which actually had pop rocks in it.

"What!" I shouted when the clerk told me, "Pop rocks!  Can you believe this?!" I directed this comment to the guy in the booth, but he just looked away.

It was good but I settled on Mint Chocolate Cookie. Steff got Double Chocolate.

Then I looked up at the sign and gasped again

"Free sprinkles!!!"  That is the coolest!

I actually didn't get any sprinkles which I later regretted but it's nice just knowing that such a thing is out there.

The sign gave me more excitement than perhaps it should a thirty-six year old woman, but it was a lovely thing to see nonetheless. 

And after a day, spending time with someone who just six months ago was back from travels in Europe and building his own house with his own two hands by himself in the woods of northern New York..watching him lay in bed and have to call a nurse just to get up...seeing my friend not only lose his independence, but also thinking about the end of his wonderful, interesting, well-lived life...ice cream (and free sprinkles), however small in the grand scheme of things, was a lovely thing indeed.