With the days being longer and the weather being more compliant to my wishes of warm evenings Handsome Husband and I have been going on walks together when he gets home.
Our walking paces are much different and when I say walk I may perhaps mean a canter over the country side while most people would prefer to ramble, all using the adjective walk. So we compromised on a stroll. I walk a little slower, Steven walks a little faster and somehow we meet in the middle with me always a step ahead. He loves to carry Alaska in the front pack rather than taking the stroller and that is just fine with me since she seems to have some kind of on-going feud with riding in a comfortable car seat with toys dangling from the handle bar and a nice cover to keep her face out of the sun. She doesn't know how good she's got it.
It's been nice to be out in the exciting buzz of spring. People outside in the evening raking their yards and piling winter on the side of the road. The vacuum truck comes regularly on Mondays again. Others sitting on their porches in their rockers, yes, Farmington is old school that way, rocking quiet and still. And then there is, of course, the other walkers, runners and bicyclists. Which is nice when you pass them on the other side of the road or going the opposite direction of yourself but never ceases to be awkward when they're breathing down your heels into your low-cut socks and won't pass.
Handsome Husband is one of the ward missionaries right now and for the past few walks we haven't gone much of anywhere without running into people and chatting for a little bit while they gaze at Alaska. She's the best conversation starter I have ever had and I feel Steven reaping the benefits as we stop by a few houses where some inactive people live and we knock just to say hello and ask how everything is going. It reminds me why I was so smitten with the boy in the first place. His ease at conversation and never-ending smile.
What would usually take me 25 minutes with Alaska in the stroller in the middle of the day can take Steven and I at least an hour, but I really don't mind, even if I tease him about it a little.
There was one such evening we were rambling through, looking for a spring that I had seen in the summer but have never been able to find since when we saw a decent looking couch sitting in a yard, a 'Free' paper taped like mad to its cushion. We currently have two couches, both of them people eaters, and we had been talking about getting rid of the one that probably has bodies smuggled in between its cushions from the past three previous owners. It seriously eats you alive, like a sand trap that thing is.
Steven knocked on the door, the free sign was taken off and we ended our walk early to call up the trusty neighbor with his muscles and truck for reinforcement. After taking the first couch down to the basement we rearranged the furniture enough times to come to the conclusion that the second people eater had to go, as well. It now sits in Alaska's room, waiting its deployment to the curb. We're down two places for company to sit but have a couch that we can trust to not snack on our visitors and to leave the change in their pockets.
There are minor flaws, of course, like three of the four cushions have tears in them, but really, that just merits me the excuse to get some cute throw pillows and to constantly have a blanket out. We haven't gone strolling together since, I am mildly concerned as to what else people are going to be putting in their yards as spring turns into summer.
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