19 Making a Living

As I was about to leave for work one day recently, a pretty typical conversation began. Bingley stopped me as I was putting on my coat, and he said "Don't go!" "Sorry:  I have to go." "Why?" "I have to go to work." "You did that yesterday." "Yes, I have to do that most days." "Why?" "I need to make a living." You can guess it:  I got the Mr. Spock look. "You're already living," Bingley said. "That's just a saying. 'I need to make a living' means I have to work to make money." "What do you need that for?" I was getting just a little exasperated, which finally got me to the point. "I need to make money so I can get your cat food." "You need it for food?" Bingley exclaimed. "Yes." He thought for just a moment." Better get going!" he said. "You don't want to be late!" Right. "Some of us eat to live," I said, "and some of us live to eat"--I'd forgotten I used that one before. "Live to eat," Bingley said with a smile. "Do I get a treat before you go?" ***Apologies to anyone who was hoping to keep up on Bingley's adventures: we've had a long hiatus, but we're back now. Bingley had a scary incident that I'm not ready to write about, and I've tumbled through a number of the ubiquitous computer problems. But if today's posts go up neatly, we're online again and eager to share more stories. Thanks for visiting us again!