Stairs and Funny Business

Believe it or not the fastest route between home and our children's school is to navigate this long stairway at the hospital. It's also the quickest route to downtown. The two channels down the center are for bicycles. When the children were young the wheels on our double stroller coincidentally fit perfectly in the grooves. 

My youngest boy has gotten good at hopping down the stairs on his inline skates and lately rides the last three feet on the raised sides of the bicycle grooves. I brake the weight of my bike and have to negotiate an inverted rail (to keep skateboards off) on each of the 3 landings. Between medical students, hospital personnel and locals, it's a frequent cut-through to the University of Vermont and all points downhill to the waterfront. In the morning we often greet a commuter pushing his bike, someone I've gotten to know over the years as he helps patients out of vehicles and into the hospital entrance.

Using the stairway comes naturally now, but passersby often make comments. "Ah, I've always wondered what those were for." And one day while we all were on foot, my son stopped at the top, pulled a super ball out of his pocket and started it rolling in the gutter, letting gravity do it's magic. I had to laugh. He ended up chasing it all over the place because beyond the bottom of the stairway there's a gradual downward slope.

And while I'm on the subject of stairs, a funny thing happened at home. We have a quirky pet rabbit who lives in a pen in our basement. We let Hershey out occasionally so he can have the run of the whole floor. Lately he's taken to the stairway. He hops up and down. Without stopping. The soft thumping of his feet is a delightful sound and I peek from the kitchen doorway.

Bicycles and cute bunnies. Does it get any better than this?