I returned home from a trip to my local HEB grocery store and as I pulled into my driveway, noticed two plastic bags, of the type that are used to deliver food from the local restaurants. I got very curious at this as I knew that I personally had not ordered any food online as I am content with the simple home made things to eat. Food, as much as I like it, is not top of my list and I try to eat as simply as I possibly can with very little (if any) meat and the rest is fish, fruit and vegetables, lots of both. When I do want something extravagant, I will buy a single slice of cherry or similiar pie which I always regret immediately after consuming it. One thing I have noticed as I grow older are that the muscles that I used to have are no longer existent and in their place are rolls of fat. Well maybe not rolls but some belly fat which bothers the heck out of me. That is the main reason that I am very careful what I eat. That piece of pie easily puts on a half a pound of the unwanted stuff and I just don’t exercise or am active enough to burn it off.
But I digress. I checked the bags and sure enough they contained food from a Chinese restaurant. There wasn’t a note from an unknown benefactor saying that, “As you are an old man and look like you need some decent food instead of that junk salad that you consume, I have taken the liberty of sending you this wonderful meal. Signed Anonymous”. I have to admit that I was rather disappointed at this as the food did smell very good. I brought it into the house where the dogs took an immediate interest in the smell. Chinese is a very rare occurrence to all of us. I immediately sat down at my computer at the Nextdoor program to write my neighbors to see if any of them were expecting a delivery and wondering where it might be. Having got that out of the way, all I could do was wait to see if anyone responded. Meanwhile, the smell from Chinese food was still very strong in the air and got my mouth watering.
Thirty minutes passed and still no responses to my message so I decided to contact the Chinese Restaurant from where the food came as the invoice was still attached, to see if they might have some information. A very Chinese sounding gentleman answered the phone and I explained the situation. I got the impression that he was a bit disappointed that I was not placing an order. He listened to my story and then went on to tell me that all they did was to cook and prepare the food for one of the delivery services like Grubhub and Hello Fresh or someone similar and had no idea who their customer may be. I thanked him for his help, hung up and then sat back to decide my next move. Meanwhile, all I could smell was the delicious aroma of Chinese food wafting from the bags placed on the table. I checked my phone again but had not received anything on Nextdoor as I had left my phone number.
After a bit, I decided my next move. My neighbor from across the street was in a serious car wreck and had only just got out of hospital and I thought that they might like to have the food to save the husband from making a mess of preparing a meal and gave them a call. The neighbor answered the phone and I explained just what had happened and he willingly jumped at the chance of a free meal. Putting on my jacket and telling the dogs that I wouldn’t be long as they thought it was walkies time… again, I walked across the street and knocked on the door and after a brief conversation explaining what had happened, left the food with the husband.
I had not been back in the house five minutes and the phone rang and my immediate thoughts were that it was someone from Nextdoor trying to claim the food and I wondered how I was going to explain it to them that I had just given away their evening meal. Turns out it was my neighbor and he told me that his wife had just called a restaurant to see where their food was as they too had ordered online and it turns out that what I had just given them was their original order. Boy, was I super pleased that everything had worked out as planned and that I didn’t have a guilty conscience for eating someone else’s meal. I don’t think that I would have really enjoyed eating it anyway as it was not really my food. Finders is not necessarily keepers and definitely not in this case. So all’s well that ends well, as the saying goes.
BTW, I can still smell that delicious aroma and my salmon salad that I ate later on, didn’t quite taste the same but at least I ate it with a clear conscience.
Written 12/18/2020
