Flat Tire PIE

Recently a flat tire on my beloved's bike gave me a huge piece of PIE. As per usual, he had taken our aged Buick to Dave-the-Wizard's car repair with the bike strapped to its trunk. Our general rule is that we bike home from car repair and await the tragic phone call telling of us the repair's price tag. Dave is always gentle with us and gives the number softly. But, on this day, my beloved called me and relayed the message that his bike had a flat tire. Would I come and get him? I did. Realizing the day would hold the usual afternoon deluge, I decided to take my piece of the PIE on foot. I drove to Dave's, loaded the husband and the wounded cycle on the Honda and asked to be dropped off at Phillips garden shop about a mile and a half from home. Walking home allowed me to purchase half price thyme,stop by N's for a good talk, locate my employer's new office suite,see Jake's urban farm and marvel at the change,stop on St. Johns Ave to watch the neighbors' new bed be delivered."We've had the old one for 29 years," the new bed owner confided to me (thus triggering my guilt for replacing mine with only a decade's wear.) None of these interactions and events would have taken place if I had stayed in the Honda. None of them were on my calendar. All of them added to the quality of my life by weaving the communal threads of plants and people. Traveling on foot speeds up my metabolism and slows down my life by having me take roads less traveled( by me anyway). Didn't Scott Peck say something about the value of those roads. If I remember correctly----he did.