NaBloPoMo: Thirty Acts of Love: Day 5. Ups and Downs

Connor and I were biking home from a friend's house on Sunday night after dinner. It was dark - too late for riding, really. But prior to dinner, we'd stopped at the playground to play tetherball and I hate driving such a short distance, so we opted to use our bikes.

We turned on our not-quite-strong-enough bike lights, and headed the few blocks home.

Our neighborhood has been under a lot of construction lately. Over the past two years, I think all of the sewer lines have been upended and reinstalled. On top of this, neighbors are always adding on to their homes, tearing them down and starting over, or installing new landscaping.

This leads to lots of construction debris on the grounds and lots of rather large cracks in the roads. Some of the roads are well lit, but most have rather mediocre lighting. On top of this, there are a lot of hills.

Connor decided that I would lead our two bike train home, and he would follow. His reasoning was that he was going to try and stay right behind me so he didn't land on some messed up part of the road. Connor is prone to accidents, so I half-expected him to be hitting asphalt at some point.

We coasted down the first hill and I heard Connor shout "Wow! I just hit a big crack!". But I could also hear him still cruising behind me and no tears. A good sign, for sure.

Then I heard him shout "sometimes I wish our neighborhood wasn't so filled with  hills" as he huffed up a small hill.

"Hills can make bike-riding difficult, Connor."

"Yeah, but I guess there are ups as well as downs with the hills. They're really fun to go racing down really fast."

"Indeed, Connor. Just like everything else, there's some good things, some bad things."

"You know, Mom, there's only one thing that doesn't have anything bad about it. It's having you as my mom."

"Connor - I'm going to feel happy for a long time. That was such a nice thing to say."

Mind you, a few hours earlier he had been telling me he was NEVER! going to play tetherball with me again because his head collided with a ball a couple of times - and he was definitely not happy with me.

But you know what? I take whatever compliment I get - even if it comes in the dark of night, When nobody else is around to hear it, when we shouldn't be on our bikes, and is probably inspired more by making it to a lighted street in one piece than by anything else.

Thanks, Connor. I love you, too.

Elaine


Day 1. The All Night Sewing Spree
Day 2. Package from a Friend
Day 3. For the Love of the Game
Day 4. Always There