The Miracle of the Running Shoes

Jim took photos of Matt, Stephanie, Sue, Gloria, Penn, Cole, Owen, Pearl, and me after a violin trio.

After that, we went swimming.

About ten days ago, getting ready to leave the swimming pool, I put my running shoes on top of the car momentarily. I promptly forgot the shoes were there, about 3.5 seconds after thinking to myself, "don't forget the shoes are there."

Since they were old shoes, I couldn't bother driving back to go look for them—I imagined a headline in the newspaper:

MAN KILLED ATTEMPTING TO RETRIEVE WORTHLESS SHOES

Five days later again returning from the swimming pool, now with Gloria, Cole and Owen, I explained what had happened to the shoes and asked Cole and Owen to look for them as we drove home. Gloria immediately said something that suggested that this was a hopeless activity. But just as I finished saying "Well, you never know, stranger things have happened..." I saw the shoes, patiently poised on the curb, obviously set there by some passer by.

We stopped the car and Owen and Penn (who happened to be visiting, and travelling in the car behind us) retrieved them.