Beau on a walk part 2 for FFF Final Friday Fiction

 

The story you are about to hear is true. The names have not been changed, and the innocent can not be protected, because there is no innocent in this story.

The story is Not Fiction.

This is the neighborhood we live in.

these are the streets we walk.

the streets are lined by thousands of homes 1960's cinder block.

The red blob in above snip from Google Maps is our home

and is  the starting point of Beau and his Mama's daily walk.

The red dots are the steps we take, 

the big red X's are Stop Signs

we travel through 4 of these Four Way Stops

This is the busiest street.

We walk facing traffic,

this is a need for us, because our world is full of 

idiots who poke their phone and aplly makeup while driving.

some will move over for us

others do NOT.

Above we are heading  back towards home, approaching our right turn,

we STAY, at the stop sign to the left and on OK we cross the street at a diagonal to the drawn stop sign, 

which is the last PEEmail reading of our walk.

 with my eyes focused straight in front of me to keep my dizzies away,

my eyes scanning 180 degrees, looking  for danger, without turning my head, 

I went into Covid Variant Brain Fog and stopped paying attention.

We were walking on auto pilot.

We stopped at Stop Sign, 

I said Stay, OK and we walked at the diagonal to the other sign

and Much to my surprise, it was NOT the street to home,

there was a big white house there NOT the red brick house.

Beau had chosen to walk me across, I followed in a daze

 we both stood there in shock because we were at the wrong street.

We always walk on the wrong side,

facing traffic.

I started down the side to walk that last block to

the correct street and he balked.

Mama, this is not the right side.

He led me to the other side, 

walked to  the next 4 Way stop

and we crossed the Right street on the diagonal.

I said to Beau, who is walking whom????

There is a moral to this story.

Mama must stay outside her head and never walk on autopilot.

Two days before this episode,

Walking on autopilot, pondering just what weird patio the new owners were building on the front of their house, I realized I had stopped when Beau stopped,

but in my brain fog did NOT look down to see WHY he stopped!

The fog lifted for a moment and I looked down to find he had eaten half the pile of 

vomit left by a drunk leaning out his door in the middle of the street.

I screamed NO! and the good dog stopped. 

UGH! Autopilot if fine for planes or boats but NOT for walking with dogs.

Auto Pilot may be ok for planes and boats 

Joining Final Friday Fiction with Yamini