Getting Lost

 I walk our dog in an adjacent community where I know no one.  Zoey doesn't like other dogs and I have to  avoid them.  Also too many people in our small community go out without masks which is OK if you don't stop and chat.  I don't know anyone in the larger adjacent community I drive to with Zoey.

Zoey gets bored with her walks these days.  Even in this orderly planned community we walk in, she pulls me down a hidden dirt path that leads to woods and then another older community.  The older community was once a summer cottage community since it borders the river and its various tributaries.  Some homes are ramshackle, others are well maintained.

I use  my walks to call friends, especially friends who might be isolated.  call an old friend who was widowed last year and is facing health problems.  Zoey pulls me into the adjacent community and I walk and talk on the phone.  Turn down several windy streets. Don't pay attention to where I'm going.   I've never been here but I vaguely know where we are.

Then I look around.  tell my friend on the phone I'm not sure where I've walked to.  I walk down one street and then another.  The way out doesn't seem immediately apparent.   I keep talking to my friend but say I can't find my way back.  She says, you're scaring me.  She probably thought I was slipping into dementia. Finally I tell my friend I'm hanging up and focusing on getting home.  I call my husband and also check Waze.  The way I came in on a dirt path through the woods is not on Waze and I get a much longer road home which I don't want to take.  My car is parked on the road near the woods.

My husband picks me up and drives me to the dirt path.  The experience was concerning.  What if I couldn't reach my husband?  What if my phone was dead?

My husband says, just pay attention when you are out walking and don't talk on the phone!!!