
I’m not the only one. I see others just like me, doing their errands on foot the same way I do, and not just on the nice days. Yesterday I saw several others bundled up beyond recognition in the sub-zero weather, obviously out for a long walk.
I’m curious about what motivates these other errand walkers. Do they walk for exercise like I do? Or like me, because they want to keep as much bloody oil off their hands as possible? Maybe they have other reasons, such as their car wouldn’t start in the cold. Maybe they don’t have cars.
This morning, a woman pulled up in a van with her daughter as I was “dropping” Bob off at work. They were making their morning rounds selling breakfast burritos. They both had scarves around their nose and mouth like I did. We chatted for a moment.
I asked her if their heater was broken and she explained that they were in and out of the van too much for the heat to do any good in this weather.
Then she laughed and told me her daughter had spotted me earlier and cried, “Look Mom, there’s a homeless person, let’s give her a ride.” “No,” she told her daughter, “She is walking for the exercise.”