Sharing the Path

No moral lessons or deep insights this week due to the holiday. The following is a random list of people (and possibly one alien) I encountered on my run the other morning:

Walkers Who Don't Understand Greenbelt Etiquette (and Think It's Funny):
I called out, "On your left," as I came up behind two middle-aged walkers who were blocking the trail. Instead of moving to the right as this classic audible Greenbelt statement implies, they jumped around from side to side, giggling and exclaiming, "Oops! Which way should I go?" Another group of  walkers made me go through the middle of their pack later that morning.

High School Cross-Country Girls Who Don't Care About Greenbelt Etiquette:
I ran toward a group of high school girls who are members of a track team. They were running four abreast, also taking up the trail. Even with an animate figure lumbering toward them (me), they refused to move over. The forced me off the trail and into some weeds that, with my luck, could have been concealing ticks or rattlesnakes. It seems like, "Please run in a single file line for two seconds if someone is coming toward you," is not such an outrageous request.

High School Cross-Country Boys Who Do Practice Greenbelt Etiquette and Are Polite to Their Elders:
On the other hand, the young men from the track team gave me plenty of room and even greeted me with a cheerful, "Good morning!"

People With Off-Leash Dogs:
I came across a woman bent over, bottom up in the air, stretching in the middle of the trail, and taking up the entire path. She was not paying attention to the dog that was standing guard beside her. The operative words here are "standing guard" because the dog was obviously ready to protect his owner. He perked up when he saw me running in their direction. Then he began to run toward me while his oblivious owner's butt still flailed in the air.

I stopped for a second, "Could you please call your dog?" And she did, quite kindly.

Woman Killing Two Birds With One Stone: 
I passed a woman twice on the trail, and both times she was running while talking on her Bluetooth. In case you hadn't guessed by the sense of entitlement illustrated in some of these descriptions, this trail runs through a couple of very wealthy neighborhoods.

Fuzzy Round Pine Cone-Sized Inanimate Object:
Yeah, I don't know what it was. Sure, it piqued my curiosity. But I've seen enough sci-fi to know not to pick up strange, alien-looking things in nature. Also, don't get it wet and don't feed it after midnight.

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