Today will be a three-post day. In post one, I mentioned my great need to take a little break, to do something physical under the open sky. I lamented that whatever it was, Margie would not be able to do it with me, as physical activities remain beyond her as a result of the two falls she took in 2009.
I decided that before I did whatever it was I was going to do, I should take Margie out, on a drive, so we could do at least one little thing together. Remember that, until last night, we had been apart for the five full days that she had stayed in town to babysit Jobe.
We started by going to lunch at Taco Del Mar, where we bought one burrito and one quesadilla and split them both in half. They make huge burritos at Taco Del Mar and half with half a quesadilla is plenty.
As we drove there, we passed these two walkers, who themselves had just passed Metro Cafe.
When we reached the stop-light at Lucille and the Parks Highway, this was the scene. No big deal, the good humor man had just exited a parking lot right on the corner and had no choice but to wait in this configuration until the light changed.
I was attracted to the ice cream illustrations on the side of his truck and hoped that I would get a chance to get a better photo of them.
Soon, the light changed and we were on our way to Taco Del Mar. This guy on a four-wheeler was traveling in the opposite direction.
As you can see, the man in the good humor van was directly in front of me. The left lane was full of cars. My only hope was if, at the next stoplight it worked out that the cars on the left all stopped ahead of him so that I could pull up alongside.
It looked like it might.
In fact, it did. He came to a stop, a gap opened up to his left, I pulled into it and then shot this snap as I rolled slowly past him. As you can see, he was talking on the phone. I then heard him shout angry and loud just after we passed, but I could not make out his words.
Apparently, it would seem, he was angry that I had taken the picture of his truck. But, hey! If you are going to drive around with pictures of ice cream, sundaes, shakes, malts and banana splits painted on the side of your truck, then you just have to understand that people are going to want to take pictures.
Here I was, giving him free advertising, and here he was, shouting at me.
Oh, well. One should not expect too much appreciation in this world for good deeds done.
After that, I steadfastly decided that I was not going to take anymore pictures - not because the good humor man had intimidated me - no, not at all - but because I have a big backlog of pictures from the last couple of days that I have yet to deal with and I just did not want to deal with anymore.
So I shoved my camera deep into my pocket, where I could not easily get at it.
I left it there while Margie I and ate. It remained there afterward, as we drove toward Palmer. I saw many potential pictures, but, what the hell. I had enough.
I can't photograph every damn thing I see.
Then, just before we reached Palmer, we saw a young man on a skateboard being pulled pulled by a sled dog.
And there was no way I could safely extract my camera in time to take the picture.
When we turned around to go back, I took my camera out of my pocket and got it ready, just in case we should again see the young man on the skateboard being pulled by the husky.
We didn't. But I did see this man in my rearview mirror.
Now he will be remembered for all time and eternity.
"That's the guy who pulled his motorcycle right up behind Bill Hess on that day that he failed to photograph the skateboarder back in 2010," a fellow by the name of Galp will say to his wife, sometime in the year of 201,424,899,212."
"Yes," Galphina will agree. "Too bad that he missed that sled dog and skateboard, but what a fortunate man this is, to have traveled behind him afterward."