Today Elwood and I set off for the two-block walk to the Post Office. I have found our city Post office to be a peculiar building, but then, maybe every Post Office is peculiar. There was the little building behind Musclemann's store where Mrs. perdom weighed our 4-H rabbits for my sister and me. We brought them in our doll carriage, the only conveyance we had available to us which would contain the rabbits. A wagon would not have worked.

I think the Jamestown Post Office is far grander and therefore far less functional. Two sets of multiple doors must be negotiated before tramping up the stairs into the rotunda. Perhaps some nineteenth-century charm might have been retained to recall a time when public buildings evoked a sense of stability and making a mark on the land. CNN destroys any atmosphere the space may have had not to mention messing with the acoustics.

Upon leaving the staircases, Elwood became a tourist.    What is this place? He stopped listening to my directions, gazing about. Surely we had been here before. With friends and the convenience of buying stamps at the grocery store not to mention automatic payment, I do not come here frequently.

Fortunately,, the postal clerk sang out and I transacted my business; then we were off for our daily walk in the sunshine.

Crossing Harrison Street seemed to present a challenge to Elwood. I became concerned. When Elwood is uncertain, he does everything in slow motion. I kept encouraging him to hurry before the light changed. After what seemed an eternity, we stepped up onto the curb having overshot the ramp. No wonder the trip seemed endless. We had walked much farther.

Elwood suggested we continue to Five Corners, but I insisted we turn around and find the sidewalk to Tim Horton's. Then Elwood's difficulty presented itself to me. There was a tape across the sidewalk.

A man in the first car waiting for the light explained I could go around on the grass and directed me. I discovered there were evergreens growing where I thought there was just scraggly grass. We reached sidewalk again and made our way to Tim Horton's. I congratulated Elwood on his terrific work.

here's the thing: I am not persuaded God needs to be importuned for parking spaces. However, I did ask for assistance getting back across harrison Street. What was I supposed to do? Go back by the evergreens and step off the sidewalk and stand in the street where I thought the intersection might be?

We set out boldly, Elwood navigating the drive through and its cars and locating the sidewalk on the other side of the entrance. Maybe the tape wasn't at the ramp. Elwood turned right and stood at the curb, far short of where I judged the ramp to be. A tape angled across the sidewalk.

"The sidewalk's not there," a voice said. "You can cross. The light is red."

Oh dear. Red light intelligence again. For whom is the light red? Me? The cars in front of me? They were whizzing past.

"Want to hold onto my bike?"

My hand was placed on a bicycle seat. Bicyclist, Elwood and I crossed the street together.

I'm a country girl. I lived far beyond the sidewalk growing up. However, I also had shoulders, grassy banks  and ditches to keep me off the road. I will have to wait for news of sidewalk rehabilitation before chancing another Harrison Street crossing. Sigh. So much for practice crossing busy streets and an outing for coffee.