Frodo and Sam

I forgot to post today/yesterday. I don't know how it happened. Time just got away from me. It's one of those things that happens when you have kids. They're little langoliers who feed off of time. One minute it was morning and the next thing I know, it's midnight.

I remember us heading up to the grocery store, a trip that usually takes me about an hour. My grandmother was on the track team for the Underground Railroad. She's 82 and walks a good five miles a day, not for exercise or sport, but because she finds it quicker than waiting for a bus. When I was little she'd keep me out of school because paying bills was an all day affair and she wouldn't be home in time when I got out of school. We left her house and walked about 16 blocks from her house to Union Station and then another 15 blocks from there to the old Bell Atlantic building. Then we went to the Pepco office, then Washington Gas and then to the old Woodies building to pay her account. After all of that, we'd stop at Popeyes to split a two-piece and then walk ALL THE WAY back to her house. I was five.

With that in mind, you can understand how I can walk 2 miles to the grocery store and back in under an hour. At least I used to be able to do that. A new challenger has entered the ring. My daughter is at the stage where the stroller is no longer acceptable. She wants to walk too. Since marching for freedom is an Allen family birthright, who am I to deny her? It took about an hour to go four blocks. We stopped at every bus stop, mailbox, stop sign, manhole cover and piece of trash on the ground so that she could explore, point, and read the letters to me.

Obama was on his way somewhere today so they had Marine One flying over. For those who don't know, they fly two or three of those things at all times so that you never know which one he's in. That meant that three helicopters circled over us every other minute. My daughter stopped to point and yell "Airplane!" everytime she saw one. That meant I had to yell it out too. Then we had to stand there and absorb the magnificence of flight as she watched it go across the sky. Then we'd start walking again only to have her attention captured by the marvel of metallurgy when she saw "SEWER" written on a manhole cover. "S-E-W-E-R, S-E-W-E-R, S-E-W..." COME ON!

I'm sure the trip to the store was like the fellowship of the ring in her mind. To me it was like The Oregon Trail. It took forever, we lost some people to dysentery and I carried a hundred pounds of food back home. It was a very long day.