The Ups and Downs of Alternative Errand Running

While on foot one lovely day this weekend, Mark and I had pleasant walk up the hill to run errands.  We stopped and smelled (and photographed) the flowers.

Admired the garden sculptures.

Said hello to a crow or two.

And had an other wise happy time.

We went to the library, grocery store and pet store.  Very productive with heavy packs to show for it.  On the way down we enjoyed the view of Puget Sound and The Olympic Mountains and took a short cut.  A quieter little side street, that was significantly steeper.  With wet washed aggregate sidewalks.  This is where the "Downs" came into play and literally at that.  One minute I was looking around with a smile on my face listening the happy chirps of birds and watching plum blossoms float through the air and the next I was attempting the half splits with a loaded backpack.  All of my weight and that I was carrying came down on one knee.  All the while my other leg tried to continue its impatient journey down the hill.  The results?

I was not very happy.  Wasn't I too old for scraped knees and severely bruised (thank goodness it wasn't shattered) knee caps?!  I sat a while to contemplate this and to get a more even breath back.

Then came the fun part of making my way the rest of the way down the hill - in the road where there was no washed aggregate.  (WHO thought this slippery material would be a good choice for steep sloped sidewalks in the very wet pacific northwest?!)

My gaping wounds and pouring blood got me plenty of attention.  One young child and his toddler little sister were standing next to the sidewalk a little further along waiting for their dad to finish getting things out of the car.  When the little boy saw me coming, maybe 20 feet away or a little more, his face went pale, eyes got big and he yelled out "WHY?" very loudly - he was mortified!  The father was trying to get there attention and hadn't seen me yet, as I walked up along side them I mentioned that the boy was a bit preoccupied by my scraped knee.  When the dad saw it, he smiled.  "Oh, yeah, he just got one of those, himself, recently."  Poor kid.  The sight of my knee brought the whole experience tearing back into his mind.  Maybe a first lesson in empathy?  A little further along some other neighbors looked over the fence and offered me band aides.  But we were close to home now and I was looking so forward to getting gravel out of my knee and pouring witch hazel over it. Oh, yeah.