Good morning

Oh dear. I haven't had my camera handy too much lately. I come to the end of a day and realize I haven't taken a single picture...

Today, as usual, I went off to crosswalk duty at 7:30am. In the 30 minutes that I stand in front of the school maybe 150 cars pass by me with drivers on their way to work. I have been a crosswalk guard for about a year and a half and one of the things I like is that I make "friends" with people whom I have never talked with and whose names I don't know.

The man in the silver van... He nods to me every morning. And he switched cars on me during the summer so that I wondered where he'd gone. I finally spotted him waving to me from a new black car!

A young construction worker... He also nods or raises his hand to me as he turns the corner. I have a feeling he might be only partly Japanese... he reminds me of my own son... He smiles shyly in his truck filled with tools.

The man who drives a different car every day... He has at least three cars and I look out for him because on my first week on duty he pulled over and bawled me out for not being clear enough on my directing signals! He hasn't spoken to me since and never smiles, but I am always VERY careful to wave my arms and look authoritative when I notice him coming up to the stoplight. (And I really am grateful for his criticism. You should hear me shout out commands and blow my whistle now thanks to that bitter memory of being yelled at!)

Let's see... there is a lady dressed in a uniform headed somewhere. She smiles at me and I wonder what kind of work she does... Does she work in a bank? An office? How far does she drive to work?

One man used to wave at me daily but he hasn't been by for at least six months... I wonder who he was, why he no longer passes by. A different time schedule? A different job? I guess I'll never know.

And then there are a few neighbors whom I do know but don't talk to regularly. The father of an English student. The mother of a former student driving her son to high school (the boy himself never waves.) The neighbor who used to have a dog that I'd meet when I was walking Choco. A few of these neighbors roll down their windows and wish me a good morning as they slow down to turn the corner. It makes my day start right and in turn I do my best to keep a cheery smile on my face for the rest of the drivers passing by the small corner of my world.