Make Peace

On the way to work there is a lady who walks her two dogs every morning. If I'm early then we cross paths at a certain point and at least one of the dogs goes barking mad (see what I did there?), yapping and jumping up and down as I approach. The lady must restrain her dogs each time I ride past so that they don't jump into the road (they have leads on, but still they'd choke themselves if she'd let them).

So this morning I slowed down and stopped, turn the engine off and asked if I should take a different route. After all, it's far easier for me to ride down the High Street and up the road that runs past the train station; and I wouldn't dream of urging someone to avoid the greener lanes on their morning constitutional, in such fine weather, just because I want to ride my bike down those same green lanes.

We had a short chin wag and we let the dogs sniff the bike until it seemed less distressed by it. The lady, whose name I did not ask, said that it was one of the two dogs in particular that just went a bit crazy when it saw or heard any motorcycle.

The lady said, why change my regular route on my morning commute, just for a barmy little hound? She said that potentially, "she'll get used to it eventually," and that I shouldn't worry about the dog's demeanour.

So tomorrow morning, should we cross paths again, I'll be able to nod and smile and know that a little conversation stopped me worrying that a lady resented my motorbike stirring and startling her dogs. Communication.