Sharing The Road

I'm not a morning person, meaning, I generally do my walk at night. However, today, I decided to do my walk about 9:30 in the morning because I have plans this evening. I found that my morning walk looked a little different than my night walk.

More people are stirring around in the morning. Young kids are outside playing, riding bikes, tossing footballs, and sharing the road with me on their skateboards ... all making me want to have a police escort to protect my new knees. Some folks were out walking their dogs, others were loading their cars before heading to their favorite tailgate or football party. I, too, am heading to a football party later today at the home of friends in Slidell. That's why my feet were pounding the pavement this morning.

Now, I like a compliment as much as the next person. Today, I admit, I was walking half asleep when I heard a car coming up behind me. I know that in the great state of Louisiana pedestrians have the right of way, but since I don't want to be walking with the right of way in either heaven or hell, I move over as far a possible when hearing a car coming. Usually the cars just slide right past me and I gulp in a lot of nasty fuel emissions. But this morning this one car seemed to hovering closer - and longer - than I like. I did a quick glance over my shoulder making sure I gave a "quit hogging the road" look to the driver letting she/he know that I wasn't moving over even one more inch. However, on the inside I was praying to God "please let that car go by because these new knees ain't made for running."

Just after my glance, the car pulled even with me and I heard the driver having her passenger side window rolling down. "Oh crap," I thought, "my evil-eye look has pissed off the driver and I'm about to get an ear-full."

Then I hear the voice say, "Look at you, you are walking so well, and have lost so much weight." Now I was eye-to-eye with the driver trying to figure out who in the world could recognize me from behind, recognizing my ass while it was squeezed into compression shorts. I appreciated the compliments, but I had no clue to whom I was facing. She was wearing sunglasses, was wearing a baseball cap, and driving a car I didn't recognize. I said "thank you," all the time hoping she would say something that would help me know this women. She kept talking and, finally, said something about "Mom and Dad," which took me out of my early-morning fog and into reality. This was a person I have know for 48-years. She was two, and I was 12-years-old when my family moved into the neighborhood across the street from her family. I greatly appreciated her compliments, but was still curious about how I was recognized by the back-side of my front-side. I was curious, but unwilling to really know how - or ask why - I was recognized.

She hurried on her way, and I kept pushing forward on the "home-stretch" of my final half-mile walk. I'm starting a new walking schedule: five days on, two days off.

So, it’s one foot in front of the other to the finish line!