Knife Sharpener.

So I am used to the soft chimes that you hear in the neighborhood when the ice cream truck comes by. This year we already had three visits, mostly on cold or rainy moments of the day. This was in contrast to the infrequent visits to our old neighborhood when I was a child. In addition, we were too poor to really enjoy a cone of soft ice cream when it did show up so I never built up that sense of tradition that others would share with their children. As suck, when the truck does drive by, I don't rush out to grab a cone for my kids.

Also, the pandemic does not help either.

Still, maybe one day this summer we will indulge our kids. Maybe.

Oh, but that was beside the point. Today I heard the ringing of a bell. This was not the sound I'm used to for an ice cream truck so I decided to investigate with Serena. As the truck drive by, I wondered to myself how such a small truck could be used to sell ice cream much less any kind of food. But then it dawned on me: this was not a food truck.

In the deep dark recesses of my mind I recalled seeing the knife sharpener drive through our neighborhood once in a blue moon. As it passed by our house I realized that this was the case and also recalled that we had a number of blades that needed proper sharpening. So I rushed back to the house, while carrying Serena, to warn my wife to grab anything that needed sharpening. I had a feeling that it would be long gone before we could flag it down.

Serendipitously, we have a cul-de-sac just down the street and it had driven inside, which gave me a minute to catch up. Even more fortunately, one of the neighbors had come out to stop the truck so we had plenty of time to get in line. It was quite fortuitous since we were able to get to know yet another neighbor in the neighborhood.

I don't recall if my parents ever used a knife sharpener as it is not cheap, but Maggie's sister use one recently and said that it gave their blades the best edge ever. He comes through these parts a few times this season so I'm sure we will be taking advantage of this opportunity in the future.