Barton Road

I still recall with pride the one--and possibly only--occcasion when I was able to embarrass Monica. It happened on a Sabbath at exactly 12:30 PM, at the intersection of Barton and Anderson, where I kicked a pine cone all the way as we crossed Barton Road, looking like a crazy person as the entire membership of University Church waited at the stoplight.

I was humbled yesterday when I walked back home from my eye appointment near the intersection of Barton and Mountain View. I didn't know that the optometrist was going to dialate my eyes, and I had not taken sunglasses with me because it was not bright enough in the morning to think of it. He gave me a ridiculous piece of flimsy brown plastic to serve as disposable sunglasses, which of course did not stay on my face and looked absolutely silly. When he gave them to me, I thought, "I'm not wearing this walking down Barton Road in the middle of a busy weekday!" But the moment I stepped outside into the California sunshine, the pain of the light started to overshadow even the embarrassment of having to wear the silly contraption. So there I was, walking westbound on Barton, right across from the one and only grocery store in town, along the main thoroughfare of Loma Linda, wearing a floppy piece of brown plastic on my face. Hopefully nobody recognized me, wearing my shades.