Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say, “please share my umbrella.”
Do-do-do-do doo doo, doooo doooo. Okay, I was not approached by a guy with an umbrella at a bus stop. Rather *I* had an umbrella and *I* approached a man. With a very cheery “good morning”, I might add. Actually, I wasn’t even sure from half a block away in the dark whether he was male or female, standing there with two fluffy little carefully leashed dogs. Not a regular person on my route but, as I got closer, I could see that he was just a cute little old man (read: probably not that much older than me) who was standing on the corner watching all the girls me go by. Whaling along with my umbrella. His reply to my good morning? “Are you just walking or are you walking *somewhere*?” Honestly, how the heck do I answer questions like this? Galumphing along down the middle of the street in the early morning dark trying to debrief myself from whatever nightmares I had quite recently (pre-shower) forced myself to wake up from.
I’ve blahgged about this before but I have been doing this early morning walk for many years. Three miles or so, that’s really about all I have time for. Wish it were more like six. Oh well. I am one of the regulars. Runners, dog-walkers, friends walking together. We all know each other. We sometimes share a “good morning” or a little wave. Sometimes we don’t. We are all out there doing our own thing and respect each other’s space. I don’t remember exactly when I started walking early in the morning. I think it was when both of the beach urchins were finally in high school together and Lizard was a senior with a legal parking place down there at our downtown highschool, Commie High. So they could drive to school together and I finally didn’t have to deal with a carpool or junior high bus. Four to a seat? Roight. That first year of walking, being your typical helicopter mom, I would call Lizard’s cell phone every morning at a certain point during my walk to make sure they were awake, etc.
I tried to do that wake-up call thing with Mouse and I was told in no uncertain terms to turn my engine off and shut my rotors down! Except for once when I encountered a cute little owl on my walk and wanted to tell her about it. My rotors didn’t completely shut down though and I would arrive home in time to drive her to school and when it became her turn to own a legal parking place at the school, I would start up The Indefatigable for her so it was all warmed up when she left for school. Grandroobly used to do a rather similar thing for me when I was a kid and I felt like passing it on.
I guess I am walking *somewhere* every morning but it’s beyond me to describe to a stranger *where*. Not to mention why, etc. It’s just what I do and that is all.
do do do do doo doo dooooo dooooo
November 13th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Yep, you ARE walking *somewhere* every morning! Even if it is physically a loop, internally your brain/mind is busy sorting things out. You are going places while going somewhere, and walking is a far SAFER way to do it than while driving (which is what I think my Dad used to do… explaining in that sense how he’d end up in the car somewhere he didn’t recognize because he’d gotten so involved sorting out cases inside his brain… if he’d been walking, he’d’ve not quite as far *somewhere* before sorting out what he was thinking about before tuning back in to the actual task of navigation!!!).