Tuesday morning I decided to take a walk around town like I used to do when I was younger. One morning I remember I got up super early, packed some water and food into a pack, and walked a long loop through town, up the hill to the elementary school, around the back way to downtown and then home again. I felt like an explorer; it was further than I had ever walked alone before. I think it's about 6 miles altogether.
What surprised me when I got home was--I had only been gone a few hours. I thought surely the entire day should have passed! But it was only lunchtime. I don't remember if anyone had even noticed I was gone.
So I walked the same loop on Tuesday, in the same way as I walked it all those years ago. I still felt like an adventurer, with my backpack strapped on and my hiking boots on my feet. Snow was falling in the morning, and I had on lots of layers. The sun came out and warmed everything up, and the tiny remnants of snow melted quickly. I stripped off hat, gloves, and jacket soon after reaching town.
I stopped in a shop downtown--the Adventure Company. Yes, that's its name, the Sierra Nevada Adventure Company. Anyway, I always run into people I know there; this time, there were old friends of mine with their new 5-day-old baby who had just been born on Friday. Wow! What an amazing thing, running into people like that, and there's their newborn baby. Totally incredible.
I wandered on, up the hill to buy a couple things at the store and then head up to the elementary school to see my Mom at lunchtime. She was in the library processing books and getting things ready for classes to come in. Eventually a class of kids came in, and she read them a story.
It went like this: a boy wanted to send his grandmother a giant hug for her birthday. He wanted to mail it to her, so he wrote her address on an envelope and told the postman that he was sending a giant hug to his granny.
So he gave the postman a giant hug and asked him if he would pass it along to the person sorting the mail, who would pass it on to the airplane pilot who took the mail to the city, who would pass it on to the person receiving the mail, who would give it to the truck driver taking the mail to... Granny! And that's how it went--each person gave the next one a GIANT HUG along with the correct address.
My ears certainly perked up during this story. Why, it was only just a few days ago that I was trying to figure out a way to send Andy a hug. Sending the word "hug" over email just doesn't seem to do the trick. I needed a way to send him a real hug. Now I just have to find the person who delivers the emails!
The next part of my story--the part about the "slippers"--happened the next day, when I drove myself to the Post Office to deliver a package (not a hug, sadly). All day I had been thinking about driving--Oh, I haven't driven in a long time, I wonder how it will be; maybe I've forgotten everything, and I have to be careful to drive on the right side of the road.
My thoughts went on like this for a while, until eventually I got up the nerve to take the little truck out for a spin, and it was fine, it all came back perfectly, no trouble at all. That is, until I got to the Post Office and stepped out, only to realize that I was still wearing my slippers!
I suppose that's what "absent-minded" means. Anyway, I mailed the package just fine wearing my slippers and I don't think anyone noticed.
Last night my Mom's bluegrass band was playing and we all had a potluck. Great fun--kids running around playing their miniature fiddles, singing and dancing like crazy, knocking chairs over. Someone's grandma ate half the rice pudding, she loved it so much. She kept saying she was going to eat it all, so everyone had to get in there quick and get some before it was gone.
The music was great, lively foot-tapping old-timey music. Musicians came and went according to who wanted dessert or which baby needed feeding. I talked with Marge, our long-time family friend, who promised to teach me how to knit if I made her some more rice pudding. Sounds like a great deal to me! She's heading over this weekend with an easy project for me to start on.
So anyway, this jet lag stuff is great. I'm running in a race tomorrow out at Chinese Camp, so I'll let you know how that goes.
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