Dale was away on business this week and so I was ready for an adventure today. We had breakfast and then went to check out an interesting little area of Pitt Meadows I had visited for a rehearsal. We went to the end of Harris Road then turned left at the park, you have to turn left, there’s no other way to go. We continued down to the round-about and took the first exit into Osprey Village. When I had been there before it was a sunny Sunday afternoon. The streets and shops were busy and looked like a happening little place. Today it was quiet. It wasn’t raining but it had been and so people had made other plans.
We drove around the village square area and then noticed an open house sign at one of the brick-faced townhouses. We parked and went in, just to see what it was like and how much it was. It was older than our townhouse and smaller, but it was worth a look. The area is charming but a little out of the way. We’ll be back again next summer, to have an ice cream or something and enjoy the sunshine and the bustle. Maybe we’ll walk through the trails at the park area too.
We drove back up Harris to the Langley Farm Market outlet in Pitt Meadows. We shopped and then drove to the Maple Ridge Farmer’s Market in the park at Haney Place. We walked around but didn’t find anything to buy. We needed something for dinner so Dale suggested a trip to Costco. That was a treat. Everybody and their grandparents were at Costco. The parking lot was full and pedestrians were walking everywhere. Dale let me out near the front and went to park. I got a cart and waited for him.
Inside we bobbed and weaved through the sea of shoppers to get the few things we needed. Surprisingly we got through the check-out quickly, and then we decided to have lunch. Of course there was no place to sit so we ate standing up. Boy, am I an easy and cheap lunch date! The real adventure started when we left the store.
The parking lot was still crazy; people double-parked waiting for vehicles to pull out so they could pull in, shoppers pushing carts down the middle of the lot, other people leaving carts in random places. Some parts of the parking lot were impassable. We waited for several drivers to clear the area before we could get to our car. We unloaded our shopping and I took the cart back to the corral. It took several maneuvers for Dale to get out, there were cars in both directions waiting to get into our spot.
As we went through the parking lot to get to the exit, we noticed an older woman pulling slowly out of her spot. She had a very flat tire on the passenger side rear wheel. I got out to tell her and she said she didn’t have far to go. Dale leaned out of his window to tell me she couldn’t drive on it. I relayed the message. She said she had no choice but to drive on it. I asked her if she had a spare, she didn’t know. I told her to pull back into her spot and we would, well Dale would, change her tire. Of course, the drivers who were waiting for her spot were annoyed but tough. Dale found a parking spot close by.
There was a spare tire in the trunk. Dale got to work and I stood and chatted to the woman. She told me she had never had a flat tire before, and that she didn’t often drive. The car belonged to her son. Dale changed the tire quickly and we told her to drive home safely. No one stopped to help, but an old guy did make a comment in passing. I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t stopped her. I hope someone else would have. But we were in that place at that time, so I guess it was our responsibility, our chance to do an act of kindness, to build up some good karma.
Recently I read a Facebook post about people who were supposed to be in the twin towers working on 9-11 but for various reasons they weren’t. The premise was that sometimes we are right where we are supposed to be for reasons we don’t know. I also read a blog post that said believing that everything happens for a reason is pure crap. Whatever, who knows. But today, after all our little side trips and stops, we were there in the right place at the right time to help.