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day one hundred twenty-nine

i was downstairs doing laundry with tenzin this morning when the big stroller folded up in the basement caught his eye. he immediately made it quite clear that we would be going out for a walk. never mind that may had practically turned to winter overnight and it was barely above zero. never mind it wasn't even yet 9 am. i pulled out the winter coats (once again) and the mittens (once again) and off we set.

the beginning of the walk was fairly good, although brisk in both speed and temperature. we both pulled our hoods up over our heads and nicknamed ourselves the two hoodwinks. we were out on an adventure. like a ferret on a mission, my peripheral vision sensed a shiny object out of the corner of my eye: ah yes, the first beer can of the trip! i grabbed it and slung it into the bottom of the stroller. we walked along, up hills, down hills. i felt some rocks in my boots. i took my boots off and shook them out and continued over the next hill. we'd grabbed a couple of apples as snacks on our walk, but since the cold made mittens necessary i had to stop about every 20 seconds to feed tenzin a bite since mitten wearing and apple eating do not make easy friends. at one point we developed a bit of a rhythm: walk a few steps. stop. offer a mouse-sized bite of apple. walk again. beer can! throw it in the stroller. walk a few more steps. another bit of apple. you get the picture.

after a few more repeats of the pattern, i once again sensed pebbles in my boot. i stopped and dumped them out. as i was bent over, i glanced up and saw a sign stuck to the gate of the property i happened to be stopped in front of. it read beware of dog. great. i took my chances - the pebbles were really sharp. i inspected my soles for holes. there were no holes in my soles. this led me to wonder exactly what type of gait i have adopted that allows pebbles to just launch themselves into my boots? this combined with the fact that i was wearing underwear two sizes too small (hey, it's laundry day) made for a bit of an uncomfortable combination.

to distract ourselves from the cold, the pebbles, and the unfortunate choice of undergarments, we played spot the car/truck/tractor. it worked for a while until about halfway through our walk - about 45 minutes from home, i might add. all of a sudden tenzin decides that he wants out of the stroller. now. he let me know this by squirming furiously and yelling down!down!down! now i wasn't about to let a toddler walk down a tiny crumbling road shoulder while attempting to push a stroller for 45+ minutes. no way, not gonna happen. i offered another bite of sweet apple as a distraction. no dice. let's look for cars again! that worked for a bit, but the squirming would just resume after a couple more minutes.

the half-eaten apple got tossed from the stroller. the mittens got ripped off and tossed out of the stroller. funnily enough, whenever a car/truck/tractor did pass, he was suddenly calm as could be, extending a freezing tiny purple hand in a friendly wave to the drivers as though nothing was up. nope, nothing going on to see here.

it was getting to be a bit of a long walk. at one point i was pushing the stroller diagonally to get it through the sandy crumbling road edge while stopping every now and then to quickly scale the small ditches and retrieve faded dirty beer cans. i wondered how bad it is that i leave the pop cans, coffee cups, and other refuse and only clean up the garbage that is worth money. i decided it is not bad at all.

nearly home, i spotted our neighbour coming up the other side of the street walking their dog. i willed him not to cross to my side of the street lest he glance in the bottom of my stroller as see that it was filled with disgusting used beer cans. he obviously caught the esp message and stayed put. we were nearly home. the stroller was squeaking something fierce. i wondered if the people sitting quietly in the church across from our house could hear the grating squeaks as we wheeled by, alternately yelling and squirming in frustration and then happily smiling and waving at cars and their passengers. squeak squeak downdowndown ahhhhhhhhhhhh...the soundtrack of our walk was varied and cut noisily through the mostly quiet air.

at last we reached the driveway. we both cheered, each happy for our own reasons to be home. just two hoodwinks back from another adventure. happy mother's day.

*****

today's look while warming up:

grey sweater: secondhand (free)
green sequined t-shirt under dress: american eagle, two years old ($15)
striped socks: zellers, a year old ($5)
black platform shoes: aldo, two years old ($125)

grand total:
about $145.08

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