CALL ME SNAKE

I’ve had a bad habit of leaving things in the streets these days. Two days ago, I found our hub cap in the middle of the street. And yesterday I found my daughter’s snow boot in the middle of the street. As to how the boot came to be there–in the middle of the intersection of Western Ave. and Kinnaird Street–well, that will take some explaining. It started with my daughter leaving her snow boots at school on Monday, rather than taking them home. On Tuesday, my daughters took their scooters to school [a distance of about a mile], deciding they’d rather walk home. So I put the scooters in my saddle bags, strapping them together so they didn’t fall out. That left just enough room for one snow boot in each. But then I stopped at the grocery store (“Whole Paycheck,” as some call it) for dinner stuff. In order to fit some of the heaviest grocery items (like olive oil) in one of the saddle bags (along with the scooter), I had to squeeze two snow boots in the other. I stopped at the hardware store on the way back as well.

All was fine until I got home and realized I had just one of the boots. I had the sense they were pretty expensive and was determined to find it if at all possible. The main thing I had going for me was that few people have much use for one boot. If only I could find it. I biked back to the Whole Paycheck and retraced my path, even stopping at the hardware to see whether they boot might have fallen out in a small snowdrift. No luck. I went down Pleasant Street to Western Ave., and still no luck. I was getting close to my home and nervous that there was still no sign of the boot. When I reached Western and Soden, I saw something dark a block ahead and sure enough, it was the boot–right in the middle of the intersection–but it had not been run over so far as I could tell. I got it home without further incident–just in time for todays snow/sleet/freezing rain/rainstorm. [Editor’s note: This was written yesterday during the snow/rainstorm but due to a technical gliche I was unable to post until now.]