The other day, John and I had the daunting task of clearing out the basement. We made piles: (1) keep here, (2) store at friend’s, (3) sell online, and (4) give away. It was a grumpifying task, to be sure. So when, at one point, John unearthed an old bike helmet, I took the opportunity to provide some comic relief and put it on my noggin. Basement cleaning is a dangerous task, after all!

Later on, I was lugging some “give away” stuff up to our porch. There was one particularly heavy rolling desk thing that I was trundling along our front lawn, and as I made the path to the porch, I was in step with a woman strolling by on the sidewalk. Our eyes met, we smiled like good neighbours do, but then I detected something else going on — a funny look. As she continued past the house and I turned towards the porch, she continued to look back at me, and I’m pretty sure I felt like the look was… pity?

I thought to myself, What? Is it that weird to have crappy stuff to give away to other folks? That’s perfectly ok, isn’t it? and so on…

And then it hit me. I was still wearing the damn helmet. Sigh.

*****

For anyone who’s wondering: the robin mother & babes are doing GREAT (see previous post for pictures).

general rambling Bike helmet, comic relief, robin update