This is Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle. Persons always complain about Sunday scaries. They don’t want to go back to work. They get scared of the week. But what happens when you get scaries on a weekday? In the middle of the week? What then?

There we were. Taking a walk thru the campground on our morning walk. The cold in the air had us all bundled up. And Girl Person was trying to walk a little faster than normal to keep warm. It’s like she was tying to walk to next week already.

As we went around the corner, we saw a big puppy and his person. His person walked a little slower. You see, he had a cane and yet he didn’t let that stop him. But when the puppy saw us? He pulled on the leash. It all happened so fast. yet so slow. It was like a slow dance. But no one was dancing. Nope.

Like in a slow motion horror film, we watched as his person fell down in the road. Very. Hard. I was at first very upset that we may have caused this. But the person just laid there as Girl Person asked if she could help him up. She went to tie us up to help, but the person said the best thing was for us to walk away so his puppy would not pull him. Again. And well. He said this had happened before. Girl Person apologized many times. And yet he wasn’t mad when he got up. He wasn’t even mad at his happy puppy. But we still all felt pretty bad. Pretty bad. Except the puppy.

When things like that happen that are so scary to watch, it makes you appreciate the normal parts of your day and how being able to do them is something that you probably take for granted. Later on, we saw him again and he was trying to walk the puppy. And we didn’t want the same scene replayed again in our minds. So we switched movies. And we continued on our walk. The other way. Who were we going to meet next?!

As we made it to a lake, we always sit there and look out. It is a pretty desolate place and usually no one is there. But because we were in a scary movie day, there seemed to be a scary person walking slow along the riverbank. Girl Person said she was probably just enjoying the view. But she kept walking back and forth. Back and forth.

Digby couldn’t take it anymore. He let out a howl on the top of that hill that would scare off anyone’s pants if they wore any.

And as the scary person looked up at us, her face was contorted into nothing I have ever seen. She. Was. Mad. And as Girl Person explained to her that we were just scared, she got madder and walked slower down to the water and Girl Person said very loudly, “she must not like dogs, boys.” And she said softer, “that’s just not right. Don’t worry. You are ok.” And it was actually ok. I was getting tired of this scary day. I didn’t know what was next.

We walked back to the RV and it was a sight for sore eyes. I knew once we got in and had our breakfast, we would have a new outlook. We always have a new outlook after breakfast.

Girl Person put us inside first though and went to take out the trash. As she walked nearer to the trash bin, she noticed that the scary hiker lady was there. Girl Person thought about turning around. But she heard her on the phone. She was speaking a different language. You see, we were scary to her and she didn’t understand that we meant no harm. She didn’t understand Girl Person at all. She wasn’t ignoring her. No one had meant any harm that day. Things had just happened. Like the fact I forgot to put on pants. I always forget.

As Girl Person was making breakfast, it occurred to me. This scary day had in fact been a lesson. A lesson that the normal things in life are wonderful. We take normal things to us for granted. But you never know what someone else is dealing with or what may be scary to them. Be kind. Be appreciative of your normals. And appreciate that others may be scared too. Maybe if I put on some pants it would have helped the situations. Nah. Hand me my towel.

–Sheriff Peanut Butter Brickle