This morning started badly for our family, especially my husband David. He and Theo had set off for school on their scooters, Theo on his kick scooter (yes, the one we’d lost last week) and David on his electric scooter. I was lagging behind getting myself ready for yoga and reheating my coffee to drink at the coffee shop between drop off and yoga. I wasn’t rushing because I knew David would get Theo to school on time, as he usually did when they scooted in together. But not today. His scooter, which is collapsible so it can be loaded into the car, had chosen to collapse with David it riding on it down our street at 15mph. David had flown off it and hit the concrete, banging his right ribs. Our neighbor Chris was walking his daughter to school and saw the tumble, heard David cry out and ran over to see if he was ok. His wife Monica had come running out of the house at the sound, and was on her way up to get me when I emerged from the front door. She recommended I call 911, and within minutes a large fire truck turned into our street and four paramedics jumped out. Fortunately, although David was in pain, he was conscious, breathing normally and had been wearing his helmet. After dropping a very tardy Theo off at school, I headed with David to the ER for x-rays. No broken bones were detected but his ribs will hurt for a while to come.

This evening I took a bottle of champagne that had been sitting in our kitchen since the New Year to Chris and Monica – to thank them for being such wonderfully caring friends and neighbors. They were the ones who called us over two years ago when we were in San Diego to break the news to us that our garage was on fire. They and our other close neighbors Tony and Frank all put us up that night after we got him to our smoky house and had nowhere to sleep. On a couple of occasions when our power has gone out, they’ve let us stash our perishables into their fridge. Hopefully, they won’t have to rescue us too many more times, but it is certainly easier to sleep at nights knowing we have such warm, caring people so close to us. We’d toast their kindness with some champagne, but figured it might be safer for all of us if they enjoy the bottle of bubbly instead.