meandering

walking to the library yesterday, absorbed in looking at all the different shapes of leaves, colors of green, fading flowers, blooming flowers, zipping bugs, plus listening to a book on tape, my daughter calls out,

the pianist!

she loves saying that. and there he was, walking up the other side of the hill across the street, headed in the same direction.

for a little village, the street to the library is a main thoroughfare, lots of traffic that is supposed to be going 30 mph but has the conspirators of a huge hill and no traffic signals to keep things zipping along at quite a pace. pedestrians beware. many are the times i've jumped as cars zoom pass me at too close proximity for my comfort.

so the idea of crossing that street anywhere but at the appointed places is unthinkable for me. there is a crosswalk right in front of the catholic church down the hill which at least gives cars pause because of the signal. the red light is helpful, but people are still impatient.

the next crosswalk is blind to one side, the side coming up the hill, save about 50 feet of road, and is a good deal away from the stop light that might help a bit.

so crossing this road becomes a bit like survival of the fittest. we run. we wait. we use our best judgment to not become creamed corn.

as we were walking home, i saw the most beautiful striped caterpillar on the sidewalk, i had to pick him up. and i had to place him on my shirt. that seems to be my standard resting spot. he climbed up me so fast, i am not sure if was due to his superheating from basking on the sidewalk (my girl had just cycled by, i'm amazed he wasn't turned into strained peas). but he raced up my chest, across my shoulder and into oblivion. we couldn't find him once we dashed across the dangerous road, and while it was tempting, it is not the kind of road one stands in and seeks out lost caterpillars, though we might have doomed him (or i might have) by picking him up in the first place.

best intentions gone awry again.

i hoped for the best and that he either made it off me before the road, or was on me until we passed through the wooded grounds of the salvation army training center. such lovely grounds. the trees are amazing.

we couldn't see the squirrels when we finally made it back home, but i did see one high up in another tree at the library. i'm getting good at picking rodentia out of foliage. we saw a woodchuck at the park recently too. they are very sweet, so round and full of life. except for the dead one i saw on the road.

i saw a deer on the way to the open mic, dead, half on the road, half off. and i thought, almost made it. i guess most of them die off in the woods after they are hit. but to be so close and not make it.

i want to make it all the way across the line and i'd like all my parts to be in working order when i get there.