After struggling to get almost 700 words written (I know! I'm such a slacker!), with my butt hurting and my wrists really unhappy about everything, I decided to pack up.

But I didn't just go straight home.

Oh no.

That would have been too simple.

See, the fact is, my house is woefully short of red wine. Two bottles that aren't to be touched, and that's it. So, basically, nothing. No. Red. Wine.

And that's a situation Not To Be Endured. So I went into Pavillion's, ostensibly to find something for dinner that I could fit into my basket along with my laptop. We needed cheese, so I went to the other side of the store for the cheese. And I was right there by the wine - what else could I do but pick up a bottle of Pinot Noir? Around the corner, the bread - buns! Hamburgers! We have a surfeit of frozen patties - hamburgers for dinner. Decision made.

Happy now, I pick up the buns, and fit everything easily into my basket, hanging my helmet on my arm, and ignoring the laptop on my shoulder.

Paying was a bit of a trial - I had to fish my wallet out of my computer bag, get my shopping bag out of it's itty bitty container - poor guy, I accidently flung it into his face as I pulled it out - but he got every thing into the bag, and I put the bag into the basket, and waltzed out, feeling very "green".

Trying to get the sack with the groceries into the basket, along with my laptop bag, was, however, an impossible task. (I lay the blame on the buns.) In the end, after much rearranging, I managed to squeeze everything in, smishing the buns only a little. And only the bottom four. I was fairly sure they wouldn't fall out, unless the unthinkable happened and I fell again.

After a shaky start (and scaring an old man just outside of Kohl's - I'm pretty sure he didn't have a heart attack, though he really didn't look good after I passed) and narrowly missing a huge cement pillar (see what happens when you look over your shoulder?), I settled in for the ride back.

I only had to walk a couple of times. Mostly because sitting on that seat HURT. Partly because I was tired, and partly because a section of Walnut has some stupid, abrupt 45 degree cuts in the sidewalk and I was too afraid of them, though I had managed the ones on Tapo Canyon on the way back just fine. (I did stick my tongue out at the telephone pole that caused my fall, though.)

I got home, and the boys looked up from their video game/book, saw that I was in one piece, and went on with their lives. No parade. No confetti. Just a bath and some advil for the warrior I was today.

The street got me on the way out. But I prevailed on the way back - and with red wine in the basket.

Huzzah!