3/11/2013

walks with buds

The doorbell rings, and when my son answers it, a neighbor lady stands in the driveway, asking, "Can Deanna come out and play?"IMG_0986

Up to five of us have ventured forth together recently, a graying brigade of pleasant companions. Our memories span the streets, schools, parks, and homes in our area. Some of us know where certain blocks have cut-throughs. Some know the newest paths to the river. Fleet-footed and slow, we surge and dally. For about an hour, whichever days we can.

Other excursions continue my way of solitariness (in my camera's company), usually along the river where buds and even blossoms begin to appear.IMG_0935

Thursday I leave my car at Maurie Jacobs Park and walk the rest of the way to our church's bookstore for my volunteer shift. It's about five minutes of river and 15 more along streets near where my dad was born. I pass Dad's elementary school, the one Grandma Edna attended nearly a century ago.
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I greet wealthy people and homeless people, skirting a mechanic's shop near the train tracks. The Eugene Mission operates a few blocks over. Next to the church, Ninkasi Brewery's new processing facility is being constructed. The city is finally beginning much needed street repairs on Blair. Above machinery hums and dump truck beeps there are bird sounds. Dust rises but doesn't obscure fresh scents on the warming breeze.

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Late Friday afternoon the perfect slant of light calls, flowing water beckons, wings tip against blue sky, and I know I'll walk a long while. Tim will be riding his bike home, so I go his direction first, and, just at the point where my path turns off from the one he travels, we spy each other. I don't get his picture; too late I think about it, after he has stopped and we've chatted and I've traced his coat's pattern with my glove and then toodle-ooed, he to cross the Owosso Bridge and I to traverse this opposite side of our waterway and cross the Greenway Bridge farther downstream and discover what adventures I may.

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2 comments:

Dee Ready said...

Dear Deanna, you just left a comment on my blog as I was coming to yours. I've been away for a while and today I'm getting back to blogging and reading all my favorite blogs, yours included. I'll probably be sitting here until 10 pm, trying to catch up.

With age and with Meniere's my internal thermostat changed and I feel both the heat and the cold much more intensely than I used to. Because the weather remains in the 30s here--with snow forecast for today and tomorrow--I haven't walked for months.

But when the days warm a little I hope to be back out, like you, to welcome wayward breezes and the dizzying flights of birds. Peace.

Deanna said...

Dee, I've also been away, doing other things. Today was a good one for catching up with bloggy friends. You'll be in my prayers, as I wish for you healing days ahead.

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