When I lived in Littleton and worked at Martin Marietta I fell in with a group of people that would exercise during the lunch period. I became rather dedicated to exercising. For a long while I would run 3 miles during the lunch hour. I was slow, but persistent.
There were times that I could not keep up with the others in the group, as they were built like, well ..., runners. One day I headed down to Waterton Canyon, where the South Platte River would come down from the mountains. This day I went cross country and headed straight down into the canyon across the yucca and prickly pear encrusted slope just outside the company property.
I thought I felt a wasp or something such as that bite me on the left calf. I reach down and swatted across the back of my leg in order to hit the pesky bug away. To my dismay it was not a bug. I had to calculate for a while just what happened before it all becaame clear.
With my right foot I had placed it next to prickly pear and broke one pear loose from a plant. As my right foot passed my left leg it embedded some of the prickles into my calf. As I felt the sting I swatted it with my right hand. Now I had to extract prickles from my right hand as well as my left calf, and also from my right shoe.
Things are not always what they first seem to be.
