running shoes

I decided to return the super cool Nike running shoes I bought on sale extremely cheap a couple of days ago--they were just too big and they didn't have the smaller size. As it turned out, we had to leave the house anyway and be gone a few hours. We brought fleas home from a cleaning job we did recently but didn't realize we'd done so until Dennis started waking up covered in awful bites. We saw maybe three or four of them this week (fleas) and decided to bomb/fog the place tonight. As David was leaving after setting off said bombs, he twisted his knee fiercely and limped to the car (while thinking about the loose mountain lion in the neighborhood). Our first stop: Grandma's place. I missed my treadmill run yesterday and attempted to catch up at home today. I was past my warmup and into my run when my treadmill flipped its breaker and stopped dead. I nearly had whiplash! I didn't trust it not to do it again and so did my session on Bob's super nice treadmill (I can now run, well, jog, for 20 consecutive minutes! Hooray for the Couch to 5K app). David still couldn't put weight on his knee when we left there to go have supper at Burger King (chosen for its superior kids meal toys). After Burger King, we took David to the Emergency Room. He has stretched a ligament (NOT torn, thank goodness) and has to stay off it and ice it for 3 days. While David was at the ER, Dennis and I returned the shoes (Dennis doesn't do so hot in hospitals). At the store, he found the kids' shoes and started pulling shoes down, holding them up sole-to-sole with the shoes he was wearing to see if they'd fit. He impressed a woman that was sitting there watching him while waiting for her husband to finish up his on shoe-trying session. He wanted to know where the right shoes were--there were only left ones on display. He told us "I guess you buy one shoe and get the other one free!". Then he took off with a shoe he loved and ran up to the cash register and said "I need the box of these shoes in my size, a size 10". I told him they were very nice running shoes, and once he got them on his feet, he ran a dozen laps around the store while I paid for them. So he ended up with super nice Nike running shoes on sale instead of me (but his cost lots less). And he ran them around the Dollar Tree as he assembled and took to the register a knight shield, breastplate, and axe. He told the cashier "I've got a sword and knight helmet at home and I can't wait to wear it all together!". I heard her ask him where his mommy was and he said "oh, she's over there looking for stickers for her class." I reminded him that he'd wanted socks to wear with his new shoes, and he said "oh yeah!" and ran to me. He told me "I was just keeping that nice lady company!". He showed off his running shoes to her and the others in the store and then to his Daddy when we picked him up and then to his Grandma and GrandBob when we stopped back by there. He showed them off by running around and around in them.

When we finally got back home, a heavy fog of flea spray permeated the air. We opened windows and headed to Sonic for ice cream and to Walmart for flea spray for the Tracker (their method of transport from the job house to our house). We returned home, expecting to change the bedding and go to sleep, but the chemical in the house left a burning in my throat so bad that we quickly packed up and headed to the lake for the night. Imagine, if you will, loading all your clothes, food, and necessities in a car with one adult on crutches and one child in brand new running shoes that he thinks give him super powers, all the while mindful that a cougar is loose nearby and (according to the website that I stupidly checked today) will eat anything it can catch AND that prefers to attack by "ambush". Exciting times we're living in, maybe even a bit too exciting!