Run

Today Florence and I went for a run in the neighborhood. She went along like the queen of a poor nation sitting on a moose-head decorated fleece blanket that blocked her bottom from the rain water and leaf parts on the seat of our eroding jogging stroller. As every Patterson before her has done, she was watching The Letter Factory on my phone as we rolled along. Those cartoon frogs are the best teaching tool I've ever found for learning letter sounds. As my slow, heavy, stiff legs took Florence and I up and down the hills of our autumn-ripened tree-drenched neighborhood I felt kind of not-as-young-as-I-used-to-be. Then I passed a leaf-raking neighbor for the second time and he said with a smile, "You going ten miles today?" With that I felt all spry-legged and undefeatable. It cost him just five words to make my day pretty doggone good.