Prakash, the physical therapist who comes to the house, has graduated me to a four-wheel walker and sometimes just a cane. This is wonderful. Not only does it represent progress in the abstract, but the four-wheel walker glides along the sidewalk, whereas the two-wheel one did not. Prakash still wants someone with me when I go for a walk outside, though.
Our neighbor Anne collected me for a rolling stroll recently, and waited tolerantly while I extolled the virtues of my flashy red walker made by Drive. Then she pointed out a feature I’d missed. “I see it’s a four-wheel Drive,” she said, drolly.
We walked all the way to the end of our block and several driveways down the next block before crossing the street and turning around. “Why cross the street?” Anne queried. “I want the full walking experience,” I answered. Maybe this was what was on the chicken’s mind as well.
Anne has snowdrops blooming in her yard, so we’re expecting crocuses any time now. She and I ventured onto the lawn to check the garden for up-and-comers. We found some, along with the beginnings of tulips, irises, and hyacinths. The grass proved tough going for me, but Anne had no difficulty with it. She was able to toss last autumn’s fallen leaves aside in our hunt for signs of early spring. I’ve seen robins tossing leaves like this in early spring, but it never occurred to me they might be looking for flowers.
Yesterday afternoon, while it rained, by husband and I were doing quiet things around the house when there came an astounding flash of light and near-simultaneous crash of thunder. It was the loudest thunder we’ve ever heard. It shook the house. It terrified the dog. And the lightning set fire to a house two blocks from here. Did you know that when lightning strikes a house, it’s apt to produce more than one point of fire? It was news to us, and probably to the people whose house was hit. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the fire department doused the fires lickety-split, so the house is not a total loss.
My friend Rhonda says that, as a high-schooler, she was babysitting for a young boy during a thunderstorm. He was anxious, but she encouraged him to watch the storm with her. The two of them were watching out the front window when lightning struck a tree across the street from them, and the tree exploded. Rhonda believes she may have affected how that child regarded thunderstorms for the rest of his life.
My friend Cindy and I have a favorite bakery, Luca, in Canton, which is far enough away that neither of us goes there more than occasionally. But Luca spent the winter building an outpost in Ann Arbor, and it’s just opened. Cindy and I went there yesterday. We each got a macaron to go. I got a dozen cookies. And we both got the Luca must-haves: lobster tails. Lobster tails are crunchy, golden pastry replicas of lobsters’ tails, filled with ooey-gooey Bavarian cream. If Luca figures out how to vent the smell of baking lobster tails onto Washtenaw, Cindy and I are in trouble.
After the bakery, Cindy and I went to Sur La Table, which is nearby. This was Cindy’s first visit to the kitchen store, and she quickly succumbed to its charms, accepting a complimentary cappuccino and buying a packet of bacon biscuits for Rascal. Then followed the texts and photographs she sent her daughter, who is the person who usually gets to go on excursions with Cindy. They’ll need to come back together, a trip that may happen sooner rather than later. Mother and daughter both love to cook, and when Cindy checked the schedule of classes Sur La Table offers, she learned there’s one tonight. On making pasta from scratch.
Post-SLT, we picked up our lunch order from The Lunch Room Café and tootled on back to our house. When we walked in, laden with bakery boxes, bags, and hot tea, Cindy started to laugh. “We weren’t out very long,” she explained, “and just look at us. Think what we could do if we had more time!”
Cindy loved how the family room has turned out. Rascal loved his biscuits. I loved spending time with my busy, hard-working friend Cindy. And I loved that during our entire outing, brief though it may have been, I’d used only a cane. A cane accords better with my self-image. And a cane is much more convenient and maneuverable than a walker, even a four-wheel Drive.
25 March 2022
What a wonderful day!