Comin' and Goin'

Buckaroo and I took a walk to the post office today. The day started out rainy, but the sun jumped out and I decided to try to put him in the ergo-backpack all by my self. We were successful. It was stressful and I fumbled a bit and sweated a lot, but he was really cooperative and held tight like a monkey. Anyway, we were walking to the post office, which is a mile down the road. Its a narrow, curvy, country road with hardly a shoulder to speak of. I chose to walk on the side with the most shoulder, which had me walking with traffic.

So, on we're walking, looking at dogs (bow wow!) and cows (oooo! oooo! - buckaroo won't make the 'm' sound yet.) and cats (eow! eow!). Along comes a fella, walking towards us. He's obviously been walking since early in the day, he was too warmly dressed for the weather - or he was a bit nuts. But I was trying not to judge. But I was judging because now I'm a MOM and I will FIGHT people if I need to protect my child, and so I was preparing to fight him. But really I just said:

"Hi! How you doin' today?"

And he said:

"Hello! Um, just so you know..."

oh great. he wants to tell us some crazy theory about the government. or he wants to ask for money. or he's going to tell me I'm the devil.

"...just so you know, it's a $52 fine for not walking against traffic...."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I got a ticket last year down the road for walking on the wrong side."

"How annoying!"

"Yeah, and I know you're just walking on the side with the bigger shoulder and stuff because its safer..."

"Exactly!"

"...yeah, I was too. But I just thought you should know."

"Thank you so much!"

"No problem. You have a good day."

I crossed the road and walked on the correct side. This poor guy. I mean, its very likely he is semi-homeless. He was missing at least one tooth in front. He was not an old guy. And he did not look crazy in the eyes. He's basically on the verge of being a hobo. And who knows if its by choice or not. But I bet he walks because he can't afford a car. Or because he's choosing a simple life. And on top of it, he gets a ticket for walking down the road. What a shitty day that must have been for him. Can't win for trying, or something.

I'm grateful he was nice and informative. We continued to have a lovely walk, and a lovely day.

Good night,
Nellie