Cycling with My Wife

When we move to Italy we want to use our bicycles a lot. Many people in Italy, as in other European countries, cycle from place to place. Many use their bikes to go to the market. We would love to do the same.
Now it's not easy to go biking with one's spouse. Usually the male is stronger( not trying to be sexist) and has to do a lot of circling around so the female can catch up. Also there are the usual mechanical problems- chains, seats etc. This Monday, Memorial day, all these proved to be true. I have to give credit to my wife since she likes to go cycling with me. We went out on a road in the huge ranch behind our property. We take the truck so we can go up the steep hill(miniature mountain)without riding on it. We park the truck, unload the bikes and proceed to ride.
Lynda, my wife, has a strained wrist so it is hard for her to ride right now( as you will see later it affected her mind). I did my share of circling back, fixed her seat level and we returned to the truck after a few miles. I gave her my keys with instructions to pick me up on the road which returned to our house. It was a beautiful day so I wanted to ride more.There were beautiful butterflies on the thistle patches, birds of all colors, goats and donkeys, cattle and horses and if I was lucky I might even be able to see the magnificent caribou that were on the wild game ranch. I was having a good ride and was waiting for Lynda to come by in the little red truck so I could motion to her to pick me up. No Lynda, no truck. I was climbing a hill and I thought I heard a truck behind me. No luck, wrong truck. I stopped and waited. I was getting tired and hot at this point. Finally I got my cell phone out and called her on hers. She had been having a 'blonde' moment as she was still waiting with the truck where we had left it. She has selective hearing and didn't pick up the phrase-'pick me up on the road'. To her it sounded like wait until I return. She hadn't even loaded her bike on the truck. So in the noon day sun I waited. Finally down the road came our little red truck and my lovely wife. She opened the door, I gave her a grave look and she laughed. End of story.

A Skunk is Still a Skunk!

This past week I have been involved in our school district's Nature Venture program for 6th grade students. This year I was the chairman for the event. This meant a lot of pre -planning in order to get over 800 gifted sixth graders to a nature park in the middle of San Antonio, Tx. We set up 29 different events at this site. Little did I know that I would be on 'skunk' patrol.
Now skunks are beautiful animals but are often, as most people know, a little annoying, but often misunderstood. They not only can shower you with long lasting odors, but also can carry life threatening diseases. Now when you get a report of a skunk near 400 students you move fast. This old body does not move too fast these days, unless it is on a bike. My partner, Anita, radioed me that there was a skunk near one of our activities so I 'quickly' moved to that area. She kept me in contact with the skunk as it moved from one area to another. The other facilitators that were listening to us on our walkie talkies must have busted a gut laughing at us as we kept giving updates about this tiny little critter who was making me walk all over the place. I kept the little guy in view as he circled activity after activity. I also told everyone I came in contact with to leave it be so they would not be wearing the skunk home, if you get my drift. Nature Venture is one thing but interacting too directly in nature is another. We were messing up this poor little guy's habitat considerably, as if the torrential rains of the previous days had not already done so. I watched( and smelled) the skunk disappear into the woods and I was satisfied he was not going to bother us any more.
This is not the end of the skunk's tale. Later that day in another area of the park I was driving my car with two of my colleagues in it when Ms. Skunk appeaared
on the road trying to get a drink from the water5 running across the road. The ladies I was with were pleading with me to stop and turn around s o they wouldn't feel the wrath of the critter but being myself, a risk taker, I slowly eased the car down towards the skunk to get a closer look. The skunk just ambled off in the tall grass near the pond. Later the next day another coworker saw Ms.Skunk walking towards a wooden bridge with food in its mouth to feed it's young who were hiding there. The skunk did not bother us if we left it alone. I guess the moral of this is that if we all learned to recognize each other's differences, whether it be race or religion, like the skunk who learned to not let 400 children bother it, we too could coexist in this world with others who seem different.
By the way there are no skunks in Italy.