it's a long walk to IGA

I want you to look at Ron's face here. I see this face any time I have dragged Ron into some adventure that went slightly awry. It's actually a little worse of a face that I see, a bigger pout and more angst in his eyes. After all, the camera was out here.

It's not much of a story, really. One day we needed milk (when don't we? we may as well get a cow) and we decided to walk to the closest grocery store, our local IGA. It was a bit windy out, and actually cold (yes, that does happen in Texas occasionally, surprises us, too). We didn't want to walk on the busy road to get to IGA because, as some of you might know due to my incessant complaining about it, Waco does not believe in sidewalks. In general. There are a few. Barely. (don't get me started again). So we thought, oh, we'll just cut through this residential area that we know is behind the store. Well, we discovered there aren't any roads that lead to IGA from there. I don't know who planned this. I can see IGA, but through people's swing sets and back yard fences. (we did have a stroller, or maybe we would have tried something creative here). After a couple miles of aimless (it turned out to be) wandering, it is getting colder and the sun in sinking. But we need milk. And now this little walk has become a mission. Why all that aimless wandering, I want to know, if we don't even accomplish what we set out to do? So there we are, having doubled back to the busy road (which is under construction, I might add, so the lanes are tight and filled with orange cones). We wait for the lights to change so that the cars thin out. I end up running, stroller bobbing along with me at the tiny edge of the road, pulling into a gravel (not a driveway, just a spot of gravel, really) to wait until the next red light gives us no cars coming. It only takes one more run with the stroller to reach an adjacent (well, not quite, but it's much easier to haul the stroller over curbs than fences) driveway to the store. And then we had to get back. Really, it was a grand little excursion, we managed to keep our kid well insulated and happy, see below, though I don't think we'll be walking to IGA again any time soon.