In case you didn’t know, today is National “More Herbs Less Salt” Day. No kidding.

Right after I got home from church this morning, son Matthew called me from the hospital.  He asked if I could bring popcorn when I came to visit today.  For everybody in the unit. – let’s see – that’d be 20 patients and an assortment of nurses and other staff members. And, oopsie, yes, he’d already told everybody it’d be coming. I knew right away it was going to be a pretty corny day.  

For the next four hours, my stove top popcorn unit was more than overtaxed while popping its heart out, cranking out 32 bags of popcorn.  You don’t even want to think about how much salt and butter the final product contained, and there was nary an herb in sight.

At 4 o’clock, granddaughter T.T. Covey and I hauled all the bags up to the nursing unit, where we were welcomed with open arms.  “Wonderful!”, said one of the nurses.  “Could we have the popcorn about 7 tonight?”, Matt asked her.  You bet”, she said.  “Let’s have a ‘Movie Night’”.

After T.T. and I came home, I cleaned up my salty kitchen and wondered if I would ever enjoy eating popcorn again.  Little did I know, though, that I was about to get a reward for the afternoon’s popping.

At about 7:30 p.m. I was just trying to figure out what to blob about tonight.  After climbing my way out of an avalanche of popcorn all afternoon, I didn’t have any appetite to eat, and was just going to skip supper.  

Phone rang.  Daughter Gretchen next door is having a meeting at their house.  “I’m going to bring you a plate of this good food”, she said.  

“No, don’t, Gretchen”, I argued.  I’m not hungry tonight.”

She brought it anyway.  Holy Toledo.  Best meal in town!  My son-in-law Brad had grilled steak kebobs, and with them, their guests had contributed delicious potato salad and baked beans.  (Luckily, no one had thought to bring corn.) I can’t begin to describe how good it was or how fast I devoured it. So much for my delicate appetite.  I ate like a longshoreman and enjoyed every minute of it.  It sure beats popcorn.

Ah-h-h.