While padding around downtown LG on a recent weekday, the Prowler overheard a boy chastising his mother, who had stopped to window shop along N. Santa Cruz Avenue.
"Hurry up, Mom!" the boy complained. "You're wasting my time!"
The child's remark gave this cat pause: Why would an elementary school student on winter break be on such a tight schedule? What pressing business was his mother keeping him from? Maybe he wanted to do his own shopping at Kid in a Candy Store or Bears in the Woods, but regardless, his choice of words was interesting.
Granted, we're living in an age in which children need to carry Day Runners to keep track of their T-ball practices and pencil in dinner dates with their next-door neighbors, but the sanctity of school holidays must still be preserved. Once Christmas has passed, the remainder of winter break should be spent playing with your coolest new toys and breaking in the new clothes that you never want but always get. If you manage to tear or stain your good slacks in the process, you've had a successful vacation.
As you get older, however, you're often forced to be--gasp!--productive with your time off. While doing the usual loop around Bachman Park, the Prowler noticed that the half-block or so along Bachman Avenue that is sans sidewalk has been bricked over, no doubt by the owners of the house that fronts that piece of road.
This cat is grateful for the improvement: Not only does the new brick walkway look better, but it saves the bother of having to pick one's way across the pebbles and twigs that were always strewn across the old dirt path, thus preventing wear and tear on uncalloused paws.
The repairs made by the Prowler's landlady over the holidays were also greatly appreciated. It was nice coming home from vacation to draperies and doors that open and close as they were designed to do. Maybe '96 is the year to push for new carpeting.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 10, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.