Today was like the usual except I didn't get enough sleep and neither did my daughter. Normally I love thunder and lightening, but last night it was so loud I swear it could have woken the dead down the road in the old cemetery! My girl came running into my room, cat jumped and hid under the bed, and I spoke reassuring words to calm us all down and hoped for sleep to come again. It was hard enough to stay awake after taking the trazodone. Now I really needed to get those Zs. I don't jump back the way I once did.
I woke up to the same annoying tourist's dog barking, saw my lovely daughter sleeping still, turned off nightlights, got water bottles back to the fridge, and went to do the morning routine.
I popped my meds down the hatch with big gulps of ice-cold water. It always feels good to know that I've taken everything I'm supposed to take to keep my head above water so to speak. The water cools my chest as it runs down the tubes in my body. Refreshing. Then I decided to tackle the job of waking the child.
She was easy to arouse as she was already awake, but playing "possum." Once I got the first giggle out of her it was all over! "Okay sweetie, time to get up! I saw you smile!"
After getting her to eat breakfast and get dressed, I did my usual giant cuppa cawfee, showered, and dressed also. She continued to watch the Disney Channel. I hate that channel. It has become an obsession for her. UGGGG!
Well, finally, after quite a bit of housework, a bit of mischief, and a decent lunch, we were headed to the bike trail. It was about 84 degrees out and humid. The sun was in and out, but we were prepared with water, snacks, etc. Then we started off!
I soon realized that I had to stay further behind my daughter or I would just have to keep stopping, getting off, walking, and then starting over again. I have to get her used to riding without training wheels (all in good time). But it was still fun.
There was a place along the marshy part of the trail she wanted to show me. She suddenly stopped and I hit her rear tire, then some touron who had been riding my tail hit my rear tire and ended up telling her that I needed a warning when she was going to slow down and stop! I tried as nicely as I could to let her know that we could have all been turned into smashed bike trail meat. She was soooo pissed at me. I think me correcting her actions were most embarrassing of all. I kept telling her to hug the right side. The people on the trail were mainly maniacs with no regards to a little child. Every time she veered to the right, I corrected her. At least some people mentioned that they were passing on the left.
Then we finally made it to that special marshy place near the bike bridge (where you can give the finger to the tourons leaving the cape and that's what I felt like doing). It was lovely. Little green crabs scuttled around as the fiddler crabs with their one over sized claw came in and out of their crab holes. It was a shiny crab show! I'm so glad she shared this with me. She was so excited and stood on the wood rail to see better. We watched for at least 5 minutes and talked about how fascinating the crabs are. She even told me a story about a really big crab that she wasn't even afraid of.
Then off to the races. It was pretty slow trekking again. We walked over the bridge. I think my girl was actually very scared to go down the other side of the bridge and use her brakes. I can't blame her. This is still a somewhat new sport for her and there were so many bikes out there. We walked our bikes across the crosswalks after we had stopped. I couldn't help myself when I kept saying, "hood ornament," as people rode across the walks that are across roads. I kept thinking about how I drive and how I wouldn't have thought twice about driving over the crosswalk unless I saw a pedestrian.
At one point there was a bike officer stopped near the beginning of one of the crosswalks. He was still straddling his bicycle and a car stopped so he could ride across. I was glad to see him wave the car on. I can't stand it when the people in cars, who are the traffic, actually stop to see if there are bikers that "need to ride" across the walk. That pisses me off royally.
The different habitats were lovely as usual. We usually walk the trails. There are the really woodsy, swampy, and marshy habitats. We see a lot of wildlife when we walk.
Later, on our hot and sweaty ride that lasted about an hour and a half, we saw two parents teaching their little boy how to bicycle with his new bike. He couldn't have been older than three or four. He had a helmet on and was rearing to go. I kept thinking though, why are they teaching him here? Why don't they find someplace he can learn to ride safely? Then later I saw the two same parents and that little guy ride across the crosswalk onto the next section of bike trail. These people were teaching bad habits to their little toddler. I just hate the way the biking has become so fucked up here. It's a nuisance.
Last year I got hit by a biker when i was slowly driving across one of those crosswalks for pedestrians. He was yelling and screaming at me like I had broken the law. I just stopped the car completely. I was so nerved up. It's scary being in a car and having something just dart out and hit you! Then to have this guy start screaming and yelling at me...... I did tell him that I had the right of way and that if he had crossed as a pedestrian it would have been different. He was uninjured and so was my car. He continued to yell. I asked him to just get a brochure from any one of the bike stores on the rules and regulations and he could see for himself. My Gawd, I had my daughter in the back. Well, out of curiosity and my heart pounding still, I went to the Police Station to find out what would happen if he had creamed me and ended up flattened homo sapien. Turns out he would be at fault. If any biker rides across and hits a car and damages it or anything we should all be advised to call 911. Be careful out there!
So, at any rate, my daughter recited the words "I'm not doing this ever again," over and over again on our ride back to the car. She told me she was embarrassed and knew exactly what she was doing. She's seven so she knows everything. Right? We were both sweating balls of water and I turned the A/Cs on when we got home. We proceeded to get into cold water in the bathroom and the arguing stopped and the rest of the day was fine.
I vow as of this day that I will not engage in bike trail activities until the weather is cooler, there are less people, and my daughter is more experienced. I don't want to be one of those dumb jack asses out there on the trail! And I don't want my girl getting hit!
We shall invest in new helmets. Viking helmets with large horns! We will remain unscathed as we bike the trails in full body armour! Ha ha!
Until later.
Oh my, I think it's time for a 1/2 milligram of clonazepam.
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