the blind horseman

[misterx]

This past Saturday I took Storm with me to do nothing in particular. I had planned to do some vigorous hiking, but she laid a big guilt trip on me about having to go to work with Mom, so I brought her. Lacking a plan, we wandered around looking at garage sales, and made our way into historic Jonesborough, TN for some lunch. We settled on an old-timey ice cream parlor, with coin operated player piano, and a decent menu. I got a reuben, she got a tuna salad sandwich.

After running some quarters through the player piano, we were eating our sandwiches. I noticed Storm was staring out the front window.

"What are you looking at sweetie?"

"That horse and carriage," she said. There was a wedding down the street and a horse-drawn carriage was ferrying guests back and forth. "They are blind."

"The horses are blind?" I asked, figuring she saw the blinders.

"No, the drivers. They are wearing blind people glasses." I look out and sure enough the man and woman in front are wearing these big ugly oversized shades.

"If the carriage drivers are blind, how come they don't run into things? How do they know where they are going?" I asked, truly curious.

"Oh, the horses know," she said, chomping on a potato chip, "They are like seeing eye dogs except they are seeing-horses that pull the man's carriage for him."

I ponder this. "If that's true, it's possible that he doesn't even know he has passengers. They might just be jumping in whenever he stops, and he doesn't know."

"That's mean," she says, forcefully, "That's cheating."

"Do you think we should tell them they have passengers?"

She doesn't answer me. She is still looking out the window. "You are right Dad. They slowed down and stopped, and two people just jumped out, and didn't pay them." Her faces darkens and she pushes her chair out and starts walking towards the door, half a sandwich in one hand, a half-eaten dill spear in the other.

"Whoa, where you going hon?"

She stomped towards the door. "I'm going to throw a pickle at the next people who cheat the horse man."


As much as i REALLY WANTED to see her assault someone with harsh words and a pickle, I gave in and explained that the carriage man was probably not blind after all.

Comments

[ianlyzu.livejournal.com]

i can't say i've ever heard the term "assault with a deadly pickle". though, i'm guessing these days, a whole pickle wouldn't be allowed past the gates at the airport.

and.
the ice cream shop by the courthouse? i love that place. something about it makes me happy.

[dariens-haircut.livejournal.com]

Not if you can squeeze more than 3 fl oz of brine out of the pickle.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

I like it there too. Unfortunately we both got so full on lunch we didn't want ice cream. I'll have to go back. :)

[xbrokenx.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHA. i just loled.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

watch out, she'll get ya.

[jintenn76.livejournal.com]

ha ha that is great!!!

[misterx.livejournal.com]

yeah. I like that she has that sense of justice like I did when i was a kid.

[rathgrith.livejournal.com]

Gotta love that girl's sense of justice! I can just see her in a little cape, unitard and satiny shorts, wielding a pickle for justice. =)

[dampscribbler.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, if I had any ability to draw at all I would SOO illustrate that!

Storm and her Pickle of Justice!

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Just like her Dad. ;)

[brujaoscura.livejournal.com]

Smiles- oh I wish I could have seen that!
My two have an interesting sense of justice.
Today they're fighting over WHO gets to feed Bit. They each got a turn.sighs I may as well take over duty when they fight just to shut them up.
But I had to give them sad news today. which really sucks

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Dare I ask what it was? Those kids seem to get more than their share.

[brujaoscura.livejournal.com]

One of my co-workers- her children are classmates of the girls- lost two cousins this week- they lockd themselves in a car trunk and suffocated. The girls had met the two boys once at a school thing and they are sad for their friends. We took up a small collection at work- even though they were not immediate family- it was still financially a rough time for them. And the mother of the boys was well known to many at the restaurant.
I had to warn them of the dangers of open objects that look cool to play in- the boys were their ages - so I made sure to drive that home to them how dangerous it was.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Made your night better? What was wrong with your night in the first place?

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Wait, you're not in Elizabethton anymore?

[captain-snarky.livejournal.com]

Yanno, normally I hate kids, but yours cracks me up.

[misterx.livejournal.com]

Ah, I bet she could convince you otherwise given enough time.

[violatedjoy.livejournal.com]

lmfao, I know that parlor and that child.