By DOLLY VISCARDI | Special to the Herald Times
MEEKER | “What are you going to do with it?” A gruff, accusatory voice broke into my peaceful morning walk.
I looked over to see who was concerned about the cluster of bright yellow Aspen leaves in my hand. I had just picked up the small broken branch from the trail. I couldn’t fully understand what the woman in the neon green safety vest said.
She peered at me, as her mask-muffled inquiry seemed to go on and on. Her garbled statement mentioned the trail restrictions, and there seemed to be one about NOT picking flowers. We both looked at the aspen leaf wand I was moving back and forth, as I tried to come up with an acceptable answer. My moving the stick back and forth told me I hoped she would suddenly disappear.
I could say I was merely examining the specimen for clues about the effect of drought and wildfire smoke, or I was cleaning up the trail for all the bikers and walkers sure to venture out on this path later in the day. However I wasn’t doing either of those things.
Her glare at me as she started to leave told me I didn’t need to bother giving her any explanation. Her guttural sounds of disgust indicated she thought I was one of the wildflower picking regulars. She had caught me in the act and seemed content to go farther down the trail to catch more folks doing things they were not supposed to do.
All of us run into a lot of people who are so angry and bored about being cooped up, they have to find fault with anything and everything. They are not only determined to report you to the authorities, they are going to berate you for what they understand you are doing wrong.
I know that some people consider the mask-wearing and social distancing as our biggest problem, but apparently we have to keep our eyes open for the weirder folks among us who think it is their duty to watch closely for any rule breaking of any sort. Oh well, it is not going to keep me from my daily walk.
