Cow Shoes!

I went to try on some Dansko shoes this morning to see what size I need and look what I found in the "As-Is" pile--cow shoes! They're going to take some getting used to because the soles are wood or some kind of resin but I like them and I'm tired of always wearing sensible shoes. Skully took me along to walk at the new Croc Center where she's a member, she had a guest pass. We walked 2 miles on the track (in our sensible shoes) and then did a circuit on the resistance machines. It was fun but too far from home for me to feel like I'd use it enough for the membership fee, which is very reasonable. Our street is sheer ice, well, not a total sheet of ice, but slush and ice. It sounds like cars are crunching rocks when they drive by and it was a trick to walk from my car parked at the curb around to the cleared off driveway. I had a vision of slipping and sliding all the way down the hill. And you'd better bet I remembered to turn my wheels into the hill when I parked.

January 23--Paul Gauguin, Ia Orana Maria. Liam ran up from the beach, his catch still wriggling on his spear. He laughed when our cook Maria took it from him. She told him that one day she'd have Phillip teach him to clean his supper like Tahitian boys. "I'm a Tahitian boy," he said. I knew that she shook her head as she lay the fish on the cleaning table out back by the shed. "You might live in Tahiti, Liam, but you're still an American boy." He'd come to find me then, his eyes low and his mouth sad. "When will I get to be a Tahitian boy, mama?" I'd pulled his small wet body onto my lap and stroked his head. "You may never get to be a Tahitian but you can live like one." So we strung up a hammock for him to sleep in, got him some lava lavas to wear, and ate a lot of fruit and fish. In other words, just what we'd have done anyway.

That's it for me today, kids.
--Barbara