Making friends

I read that you don't really make many new friends after you turn 40. The ones you have before then are pretty much it for the rest of your life.

"We'd better get busy," I said to my husband. "We don't have much time to find some new friends."

"I have more time than you," he said. "Three years more, in fact."

I ignored this.

"You made a friend down the street already this year," he reminded me.

"That's one friend," I said. "I'll need a lot more than that to get me through retirement, if I'm not going to make any new friends after I'm 40."

"Well, how did you meet her?" he asked.

"At that neighborhood barbecue last fall."

"Well, there you go. We'll have another barbecue, you can meet another new person, and presto! you'll double your number of new friends."

"You can't have a barbecue in February," I pointed out.

"So, plan one for the summer," he said logically. He always has something logical to say.

"But summer will be too late!" I wailed. "I'll be 40 by then! No one new will want to sit by me or talk to me. 'Well, she had her chance,' they'll say. 'Too bad she had to have a birthday.' "

I had a new thought. "You won't be 40 for a while yet. How about if you make friends with a nice guy who has a nice wife, and I can be friends with her."

"But I don't like meeting new people," he said.

"It's not like you have to like the guy. It's the wife we're interested in here. And make sure she's under 40. If we're both over, it won't work."