You're probably saying, "I can skip this, I know that story." Yes, you probably do know that story, but this isn't THAT story. I'll show you the connection.
For you who have forgotten or - is it possible? - never heard it, several blind men had never seen an elephant, nor gotten otherwise acquainted with one. Each of them reached out and touched a different part of one. The fellow who touched its tail described an elephant as being like a rope. The one finding a leg said it was like a tree. The one hitting its side thought it was a wall, and so on. We who see elephants know, of course, it is like all those things but so very much more.
There is a big family birthday party coming up. With all the family invited, we're holding it in a city park. It's got a lot of running room in addition to a playground full of equipment for the kids, a grill for cooking, a porta potty for anybody, and a large roofed area over picnic tables. Since everybody is driving, it's also got the necessary huge parking lot.
We're bringing hamburgers to grill, and charcoal and tools have been acquired. The burgers come from a meat packing plant where one family member works and got us an employee discount. There's room in the freezer, but there are a lot of things to transport which are temperature sensitive for food safety and require a cooler for the afternoon. Anything resembling one has long since been used for fishing and I'd never want to eat anything coming out of one of those. I went and bought a brand new one. It's huge, very squarishly cubical, and has wheels and a long handle for pulling, plus extra handles for lifting it in/out of the car hatch.
There won't just be burgers in there, but buns, condiments, baked beans, and one family member plans to hit our kitchen just ahead of time and do something with potatoes to bring. We also have a hyperactive ice maker in our freezer, and have been collecting bread bags full of ice cubes to take over.
Steve and I have been disagreeing about what color the cooler is. It was sitting in the living room for a few days, but was placed back into the car over the weekend ago to transport the hamburger patties for their over-an-hour trip north, needing to stay frozen. The patties came into the house, but not the cooler. In its absence, Steve has been referring to it as the red cooler. I've been referring to it as the blue cooler. Both of us are positive we are correct, vehemently enough to get us laughing about the disagreement while scratching our heads over how one of us could be so wrong.
With the super hot temperatures these last couple days, going out to look at it or better yet, bring it inside, has not been any kind of a priority. Today was cooler, and I had to head to work. I remembered to bring the cooler inside, even if for no other reason than to cool it down to room temperature from sunny car-oven heat so it will actually keep meat cool by party time. I decided to take a shot of it against a very neutral wall, and - I promise - no shenanigans with fiddling with the color. Here it is below. So now, you help us decide: is it blue or is it red?
; )
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