While Walking the Dog

It’s quite amazing the different things I see when walking around the suburb with Lotte, the Tibetan Spaniel.

Photo - Pavel Lovesky

For instance today I saw a little boy, maybe 5 years old, giving his baby sister a lick of his ice-cream because she had dropped hers.

I didn’t hear any coaxing from the mother for him to do this but I heard her giving him lots of praise.  What a lovely thing for this child to do.

I walked further along and saw this elderly couple (older than me?) walking along holding hands.  I was somewhat envious that they are spending their final years together in harmony.  Well it looked like love and harmony to me.

Then I turned a corner and beheld an amazing sight.  Spray painted onto the pavement/sidewalk was the following:

“I could write you a letter or sing you a song or I could just tell you that I think of you all the time, you are the air that I breathe and I love you.  I would have said yes if you had asked me.”

I now wonder who wrote those words and what the outcome was.  Is there some desolate soul pining for his lost love, or is she pining for the lost opportunity.  I wonder whether we will see the next episode written on the pavement in the next week or so.  I do hope so and I hope it turns out well for them both whoever they are.

And this reminded me of something I saw a couple of days ago when walking on the beach –

How very romantic and I do hope he or she said yes please and they went off together to celebrate.

Yes, I am a romantic at heart.

And what else did I see today?  Children playing on the swings and slides at the local park and lots of budding ballerinas coming from dancing class dressed in pink tutus.  They all looked frozen as their mothers hurried them off to the waiting cars.

Dancing class

And this reminded me of the card my elder sister sent me for my birthday.  She remembered us as ballerinas when we were very small.  She gave up quite early but I kept going until I was too tall to be a ballerina any more.

She thought that this card was very appropriate and I agree.  Well done elder sister for finding it.

I saw two dogs fighting and their owners/handlers trying really hard to get them apart.  It was a little frightening as one of the handlers was a youngish boy.  But they managed to separate them and each go on his way.

I saw a girl delivering flyers into letter boxes.  More junk mail.

I saw a neighbor with her two young children bringing them home from kindergarten.  I always have to stop and speak to the elder of the two girls (she is almost 3) because as she told her mother and father today ‘We are friends”.  She often waves to me from behind the blind in her bedroom when she is put down for a nap or to go to sleep at night.

I saw my next door neighbor walking his dog.  A very young, strong Labrador who needs a lot of walking.

I saw a group of pensioners from a rest home going to the movies.  The van was parked at the door and they all disembarked laughing and thoroughly enjoying the outing.

I really love this suburb in which I now live.  It is like a village but only 10 minutes by car or bus to the center of town.

As a senior I can travel on the bus for free during the off-peak hours and so I take advantage of this and leave my car at home when I go to town.

So this is one perk for being older.

And today’s quote is on age or as Shirley MacLaine has it “Sage-ing While Age-ing”

The other day a man asked me what I thought was the best time of life.  “Why,” I answered without a thought, “now.”  ~David Grayson, 1870 – 1946  American journalist and author.