Walks

It's another beautifully sunny but chilly day. Ground is dusted with a layer of frost and you can see your breath. The mild Seattle winters have softened me. This would have been considered a warm day in WI.

On our morning walk around the block, I saw the "for sale" sign on the big corner lot around the block. It's such a huge lot that I had thought it was a park when first moved here. It has a archaic rusty tractor and some white geese on the lawn. The gray house also looks very ancient. We met the 80 year old lady of the house while walking one day. She asked how old Andy was and said she had 11 children and now they've all grown and left only her with the big house. I wonder how she is now.

We went to the park across the street for our lunch walk. Andy was staring at the only kid at the playground so we stopped by. The grandma picked up the kid so the two can "talk" to each other. I said this is Andy and the grandma said Marshe and talked to the kid in Russian more. So I translated the info to Andy in Chinese. I asked how old was Marshe. The grandma shook her head and said "... English ..." so I understood she didn't speak English. She spoke some more Russian to me and held up 3 fingers. I nodded and said yes he's 3 months and pointed to Marshe and asked. She held up 2 fingers, so his grandson is 2 years. Again we translated to our native languages to the kids. Marshe grinned at Andy. Andy stared at them more. And we said Goodbye. Grandma and I spoke different languages but understood each other perfectly, and the kids continue to babble on in their own languages. I thought it was cute.