Discoveries in the Neighborhood

Two days of sunshine and my mood is starting to brighten. The fact that our Thailand trip is less than a week away also puts a little pep in my step.

My step, however, still has a bit of a limp. Problems with my knee have hindered the spirits. I thought I'd fully recovered from my New Year's Eve injury, but when I went to an aerobics class, my knee swelled up like a basketball and has been hurting ever since. Physical therapy is the course of action at present. I''m also hoping to get in to see a specialist during our trip home this summer. Walking and bike riding are about all I can handle.

With the girls occupied with friends, Larry and I headed to the neighborhood center. We opted for a nice walk rather than a bike ride. We explored the entire neighborhood center and discovered the place is a city within a city. I had no idea there was a dry cleaners, hair salon, pharmacy, childrens' clothing and shoe stores, a dozen restaurants including a food court, florist, charm school, library, dentist and health center, liquor store, travel agency, two toy stores and many more stores. This is in addition to the previously mentioned grocery store, bakeries, coffee shop, gym, fresh market, and KFC. Geez, I can't believe it took me over a year and half to discover all of this. We ate lunch at the food court. I'll definitely be going back there. Delicious.

We bought some fresh fruit and veggies for dinner before heading home. As we neared one of the bridges, we noticed a small crowd on the opposite side of the street. Being the busy bodies that we are, we crossed over to get a closer look. A young woman was sitting on the ground and twenty or so passerbys were surrounding her. Scooters and bikes blocked the scooter lane and soon the crowd became quite large. We passed by the growing mob, but stopped about twenty feet beyond just to see how things played out. As far as we could tell, she was either walking and got hit by a scooter, got beat up by someone, fell off her scooter and the scooter fell in the canal, or she fainted and relished in the attention of the crowd. Police arrived, soon followed by an ambulance. Three men in labcoats picked up the woman and put her on the gurney. No stabilization, no checking vitals, no calls to the hospital or any of those other things you see EMTs doing. I don't even think they strapped her to the gurney before loading her in the back of the ambulance. Larry and I joked they probably drove a kilometer down the road and let her out. We've also promised to not call for an ambulance in case of emergency.