Planned to walk a large portion of the lake, avoiding the self-satisfying young man that Tina encountered yesterday, but elected to grab the seasonal Lemon Pepper Tuna sandwich offered from Togo's which I learned about earlier in the day. It's been almost a year since I had the last one. Since the weather is so wonderful, I chose to dine along the shoreline at the Lake.

Well, for starters, got there and my sandwich was not ready AND I was third in line. Fortunately Jose saved "much face" by remembering my name from yesterday when I told him I was never coming back. Humm, the special treatment was making the sandwich a much more delightful choice. Heck! Lemme grab some chips while I'm at it. After all, I have my bottled water with me and what's a tuna sandwich without chips??

Off to the Lake I go. . . . . .

Whah la! A free bench right in front of me! But wait, there's another one! What a blessing?? Opened my chips and decided I'd do a little reading as well: the chip nutrients. Humm, . . . . this isn't good. . . . .190 cals, but 11g of fat (3g sat-fat). . . . that's over 50% calories from fat! "Oh my!" I thought to myself as I scarffed down the large thinly sliced fried potato. Didn't bear to look at the sodium or sugar. Enough reading for now.

Partook of my sandwich, with pigeons close at bay waiting for one of the bread crumbs from my breast to fall to the ground. "Not today, fellas! I'm eating every drop!" Pick-pick, munch, munch. Well, . . . . let's see, sandwich gone, so I might as well finish the few chips I have. Reached in the bag to find I'd shoved my hand to the bottom. That's strange. . . . I thought for sure I was only gonna eat half the bag. . . . . .

As I gathered my litter, I looked around to check the traffic around the lake. Surely a quickie walk is better than none, right? Well, father time was shaking his little finger and I had to get back to the office. A perfectly good day, with perfect intentions gone to waste all for the sake of the seasonal Lemon Pepper Tuna.

And, as if that wasn't bad enuff, who do I happen to run into as I approach the crossing light from the Lake but one of our senior citizens. She was out minding her own business, cladly dressed in her 2-piece pin-stripped navy suit. As she got closer, I felt the cloud of guilt over me begin to sprinkle razor blades on my exposed skin: this woman was easily in her late 70's or early 80's walking this darn lake. Now I really feel bad. She hobbled on over and joined me as I waited for the light to change for me to cross; I couldn't bear to associate the "we" in the waiting to cross because surely she was in a league of her own! The light changed, I stepped off the curb, and noticed I was quite ahead of her in just a few steps. I decided to change my pace and accompany her across the street, knowing for sure the "white man" would put up his nasty red hand, signaling we'd better hurry up or get ready to dodge the Harvard Street traffic.

I chatted with her on how I'd like to walk "with" her so at least the person who doesn't want to wait in their cars would hit both of us, rather than one. She was so kind and friendly. She even had the nerve to say, "normally I make it just in time to the other side." "Normally"! I thought, . . . . . you mean to tell me she does this all the time? Of course she does! LOOK AT HER! At the curb, we parted and shared our good-byes. By the way, why did her good-bye contain the words, "I'm in my 90's" as she giggled and turned to head the opposite way. . . . . .

You know my mouth was agape! THAT was the lemon juice poured into my freshly cut skin from the razor blades that dripped from the cloud of doom and guilt that hovered over me when I decided to not walk the Lake.

In hindsight, this was God telling me, "Remember those test results? I spared you then, now do what you're suppose to do."