grey lady down

Today I helped Geoff put together a new network at home because he needed to add a laptop from work to his workspace at home. It wound up requiring a wireless hub, and I am happily surprised about the price of the things. The total solution - including the PCMCIA card - cost $130.

Anyway, at one point we were driving down a small residential street, and came upon two women and two dogs. The younger woman - the daughter - was 40-45 or so, and the older woman was maybe 70 years old. The elder had fallen on the ice on the edge of the road and sidewalk, and was bleeding from several cuts on her hands.

The two of them, it turned out, had been walking the giant Labradors that were still straining at their leads. And the one dog had pulled just as its walker - the elder lady had been stepping over the ice.

I am happy to say that my newfound post-caffeine quickness of mind kicked in, and I was able to make several helpful suggestions that finally resulted in us both getting out and helping the lady to her feet. They'd turned down a call for an ambulance, they'd turned down a lift home in Geoff's VW Golf, and they'd turned down help with the dogs, but I was able to finally suggest something usefull, instead of thinking of clever ideas when I was three blocks away.