Monday morning’s you’ll usually find me running 7-ish miles from my house down to Mt. Carmel Convent and back home. It’s a lovely, easy run and one I look forward to each week.
The Convent is located on the bluffs of the Mississippi River in Dubuque, Iowa. It’s a beautiful setting! Over the *almost* a year MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I have lived here, I’ve been honored to meet, walk with and get to know many of the Sisters during my Monday morning miles.
We’re not here to discuss the Convent, though. We’re going to chat about something that happened late this past winter that tickled me. Although some of this story is imaginary, parts of it are very true! Our saga begins with a pickle…
Y’all know I find the strangest things on my runs. Almost every run there’s some oddity that catches my eye and this run was no different. I was running past these two houses. One of the neighbors was out shoveling and I had greeted them with a “Good morning!”
That’s when I saw it.
There was a pickle! It was one of those large pickles you can buy from a convenience store-you know the ones, they come in that little plastic bag? This pickle was outside of the bag AND it had a huge bite taken from it. Someone had tossed it carelessly on the ground, actually in the road right next to the curb.
I looked up at the person shoveling and said, “There’s a pickle in the road!” I was astounded to see a pickle! I mean, what are the odds of seeing a pickle laying next to the curb in the winter?
The home owner looked at me and said, “It’s not on my property. It’s on THEIR property. Let THEM pick it up.”
My jaw dropped a mile.
Me being me, I stopped dead in my tracks because I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard, and said, “Seriously!?!”
The homeowner proceeded to show me where the property line was. The pickle was literally on the “property line.”
I’m afraid I just couldn’t stand it. Maybe I was too far into my run to be thinking clearly? Whatever the reason, I reacted in a most uncharitable way and kinda nudged the pickle over to that person’s property. I was thinking, Dude! Just pick up the pickle! I mean, I would have picked it up if I wasn’t 5 miles from a trash can. I just couldn’t deal.
Look. I know it was wrong. I admit it! I’ve thought about sharing this many times but was too embarrassed to admit my childish response to the entire situation? So, that brings you up to date on me being a complete jerk.
Now….
Let’s look at the current situation and this is complete conjecture on my part.
The house I’ve dubbed, “The Pickle House” is for sale!!!
In my imagination, the pickle situation has turned into the Hatfield and McCoy’s and the Pickle House simply couldn’t take it any more. Their only recourse is to sell the house and move.
I know this is absolutely ridiculous. I KNOW THIS but I giggle to myself every time I run past…thinking about that dumb pickle and property lines and the whole thing.
Totally different story:
Today’s run brought back one of the happiest childhood memories I have.
When I was a very little girl, we had a cherry tree in our back yard.
Every day, right after lunch, my mom would lock my sister and myself out of the house to she could watch her soap operas. *I think these days if you locked your kids out of the house so you could watch TV would get the authorities called on you but this was the 1960’s and times have changed since then.
I loved that cherry tree! We (my sister and I) would play and when we got hungry, we’d climb the tree and snack on the cherries.
These weren’t the big sweet cherries you buy in the produce section of your grocery store. These were smaller cherries. They were tart and delicious! I just loved them!!!
Today I passed one of those trees on my run! Brought me to a dead halt. The memories flooded back. I could taste those cherries again. I remembered eating them and then seeing how far I could spit out the seeds. Fun times we had back then.
It was a wonderful blast from the past. Fun laughing at myself at the “Pickle House” and then remembering those cherries.
Happy running, everyone!!!
#IRun4Aiden
