Friday, January 26, 2007

Busted & Friday Feast


The girls have been riding their bikes to school for two weeks now. I run along with John in the jogging stroller.

Yesterday as we crossed our second crosswalk with the military crossing guards, I noticed a man with an MP (military police) badge on his arm. He was watching Sydney very intently and I had a feeling we were in trouble for one thing or another.

Would it be for riding to fast and passing slow walkers by riding on the grass?

Or would it be because Sydney was too far ahead of me (you are supposed to be within so many feet of the child you are walking to school. 12 feet maybe. Which is difficult to do with the parade of strollers in the way)

Or would we get busted for not wearing helmets?

I thought maybe it was the reckless riding. It is tricky to get to school because there is only one sidewalk on the one road between our home and the school. As we are walking to school, the road is packed with cars, making it impossible to ride our bikes on the side of the road. So we must ride on the sidewalk, and up onto the grass to pass other families. Maybe the military man would tell us to slow down, I thought.

I was wrong. We were busted for not wearing helmets. Oh, how I hate to get in trouble. When the police man asked me if Sydney was my child I wondered what would happen if I said no (just kidding.) He then told me that you must wear a helmet when riding a bike on base. I did not get a ticket, but I got the impression that if he caught us breaking the rule again I would get dragged off to the brig.

I know that there is usually a rule on base about wearing your helmet while riding a bike, but Sydney hates wearing one (it messes up her hair.) In the two weeks we have been making this trek, none of the very official looking military crossing guards have said anything, nor had the school teacher in charge of the safety patrol said anything, so I foolishly thought it was okay. I was wrong-o.

John and I walked over to the PX and bought a couple new helmets and now we are legal and safe.


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I visited Donna over at Quiet Life, and as usual she brightened up my rather glum day. Today is her Friday Feast:

Appetizer
If you could take lessons to learn any musical instrument, which would you want to learn?

I'd like to take violin lessons again.

Soup
Have you ever mistaken a person for someone else?

When we first moved to Rapid City, I went to Victoria's Secret for their Semi-Annual Sale. As I was searching the pile of bras, I heard someone say "Hi Wendy!" I did not recognize that girl at ALL. She told me that her name was Bobby... and for the next couple days I tried to figure out how in the heck I knew her. Was it the Bobby M. that I knew in Texas? Her husband flies in the B-1 and they have a dog, but I didn't know her very well, and she was pregnant the last time I had met her, so maybe that's why I didn't recognize her? Then on Sunday I saw the stranger from the mall at church - a different Bobby! She didn't make fun of me for not remembering her, and we got to be good friends. I love that girl.

Salad
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how well do you keep secrets?

TEN. I am a great secret keeper. Got any juicy secrets to tell me? Just put 'em in the comments, I promise I won't tell anyone....

Main Course
What's the closest you've ever been to a dangerous animal?

That picture of a shark from a couple days ago was taken at an aquarium. That's the closest I ever want to be to one of those guys. Oh, I just thought of another one, when we lived in Texas, I would go walking at night with our new puppy, Sam, and one night we saw a little snake warming itself on the sidewalk. It turned out to be a baby rattlesnake! Yikes!

Dessert
When was the last time you lost your patience?

Yesterday while helping Sydney with her homework. Her homework is SOOOOOOO irritating. The directions are vague and the work is just make-work, and it takes For-eeee-ver. It is making me grouchy just thinking about it. Sorry Sydney.

10 comments:

Donna Boucher said...

Ya know, when swimming in the ocean or a lake...it is so much better not to think about what is swimming around just under your legs!

Denial I say...or I would never go in!

orchard_girl said...

Rick saw a shark one time while boogie boarding on the OR coast. When I go, I pray the whole time the sharks will attack someone not in our group. "go for the guy in the blue wet suit, he's got a lot of fat for you". Denial sounds good to me!

You should take violin lessons again. I keep getting invited to play in the HR orchestra, this year they started up a begining adult orchestra and I was very tempted to join. Just need a bit more time.

Sorry about the helmet, I don't like messing up my hair either! Yesterday Abby asked if she could go out on the road and ride her bike by herself. YIKES, no way Jose those cars are driving too fast.
love you!
Heather

Amanda said...

Oh that is a bummer about getting busted. At least now the kids will have helmets though.

I liked your friday feast. THat is a cute idea. That is funny about Bobby. I didn't know you guys knew them in Texas. She does look much different when she is pregnant.

wendy said...

Heather - scary shark stories are not helping me, I with Donna - denial. A beginning orchestra sounds like fun - but I would have a hard time committing to that right now, too.

Amanda - hi! it was a different Bobby in Texas. I edited my post to fix the confusion, hopefully.

wendy said...

ah, shucks, I'm with donna....

Suzanne said...

Fun Friday Feast! Sometimes I'll see people and not realize who they are until much later. Then I think "duh" I knew that, but sometimes my brain just doesn't function. Hopefully Sydney will get used to Helmet Hair! :)

Lana said...

awh bummer!

Elizabeth-W said...

I hate getting in trouble, too. I wish I could be more grown-up, but that first-born stuff rears its ugly head every now and then.;)

Unknown said...

I can't stand the Victorias Secret Semi Annual sale. I call it the Panty Trough Sale. Where half the town gets to touch your underwheres before you buy them. Eeww. I like my unders to come nicely folded and sealed in plastic only having been touched by a little old retired lady from Ogden, Utah.

Super Happy Girl said...

Oh Wnedy, you just got there and in trouble with th elaw already. Tsk tsk tsk, who knew you could get busted at the stroller parade.

Good Friday feast!. I liked your mistaken a person by someone else :)
PS. I'm with A Payne, on everything, 100%, always

Have a good week Wendy, stay out of trouble ok?