Sadie and I took our first walk today through our new neighborhood. Actually, it was our first walk with the new wheelchair! It was a beautiful December day in Phoenix, and we had a good time listening to the birds and greeting people we saw.
Before we even got to the end of our street, we were greeted by a woman walking her dogs who exclaimed that it was such beautiful day, wasn't it? I agreed, happy that she even said hi, let alone had a mini-conversation!! People weren't like that in our old neighborhood. As we walked, we saw another lady with her dogs, an older man jogging, and a family taking a bike ride. Everyone said hello.
Sadie enjoying the sunshine with the mountain in the background
I had no idea where we were going, and realized too late that I should have at least LOOKED at a map and made a plan. Instead, I trusted my instincts, and relied on what little I know about the area. At one point we were walking down a somewhat busy street (by busy I mean the speed limit was fast, not that there were a lot of cars) where there was no sidewalk. Luckily there was a bike lane and space between the bike lane and the curb (for parking?) where we safely walked. Then the sidewalk turned into gravel before it was paved, we really took that new wheelchair for a spin!!
Another thing I learned on our walk was that it's garbage day!! We did a lot of dodging trash cans that had been set out on the curb. Some were easy to dodge, some we had to go into the street to avoid. At one point, there was a man leaving his driveway, but apparently had forgotten to set out the garbage, so he stopped his car right on the sidewalk and hopped out. I was like, "seriously???" But then, to my surprise, he looked at us and realized we were coming, got back in his car, pulled it forward off of the sidewalk, then got back out to get his trash. I was so impressed!! Who does that? That was so nice!!
We finally found our way home and walked around our own block before coming upon our house (which I almost didn't recognize coming from the other direction! ha!). It is a nice neighborhood where we live. I think I'm really going to like it here.
PS. This evening I plan on doing some visiting. I made enough cookies to knock on 3 doors!!
My neighbors here in SF are like that too, EVERYONE says hello to me, I'm so used to New York and everyone ignoring everyone else that I have a LOT of trouble adjusting to this. I KNOW it's nice but I am so not in the mood sometimes for chitchat...I find their overly friendliness disconcerting and odd!
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