“A pair of shoes can change your life. Just ask Cinderella.”

Jim and I were is separate cars because we were going to canoe the lower tualatin and ferry ourselves from the take out point back up river. So I was alone. Stopped at an intersection and some trucker behind me decided I should move up another six feet to fill in every gap in the traffic line. I wasn’t preventing him from making a turn or keeping on railroad tracks. He just abhorred a vacuum  in traffic… so he started honking at me. I ignored him.

 

AT the next intersection we again were stopped at a light. The was a well groomed middle aged  man wearing khaki’s and a polo shirt holding a small sign that said “Help—lost my wallet- out of gas”. I hailed him over and emptied the few dollar change I had in my wallet into his hand while he thanked  me. The trucker behind me was going berserk by this time, honking and gesturing.

 

We turned onto a another street and now the trucker was staying about three feet from my rear fender giving me the finger and not exactly the image of zen kindness. I decided to pull over to the shoulder and let him pass nut he stops too. SO what’s a girl to do? I start blasting my horn loudly and repeatedly calling attention to myself  and hoping that some one nearby in a park will take notice. This is enough for the nut and he finally takes off.

 

When I get to the park where we are going to take out  the canoe to join my husband and drive upstream with the boat he admonishes me for helping a professional beggar.

 

Okay I say.. so what? Better to lose 2.50 to someone than  ignore the needs of someone who might possibly actually need a little bit of money to get home safely. If given the choice in this situation I would rather be a sucker than a cynic. As for the road rage trucker, his high blood pressure is gonna take decades off his life.  And me? We had  a great trip down the river: saw deer and kingfishers and many mallard families and even a piliated woodpecker.