I was able to work this morning – in between the rain showers. I saw two different people wiping down their car/truck with a shammy. My first thought was to point out that the rain was going to continue. My second thought was to wonder why they don’t take care of their lawns as well as they take care of their cars. Their lawns were a combination of dead and overgrown – just ugly. So, why not spend those car-care minutes on some lawn care instead? Please.
Evening Jasmine
As I turned the corner to come home, I could suddenly smell the evening jasmine. It was too dark to see where it was coming from but it filled the street as I finished my walk. It’s enough to make me want to walk in the dark every night.
“Along Comes Mary”
I was listening to this oldy but goody this morning when I realized, once again, I have no idea what most of the lyrics to this song are. “… now my empty cup tastes as sweet as the punch..” What does that even mean?
I may start a playlist of songs that I love – and probably used to sing at the top of my lungs – but don’t really know the words.
Saturday
I woke up this morning and was thinking about what I would do at work today and then I realized “It’s Saturday.” I love that feeling.
I jumped out of bed so that I could start it right away!
Hustle and Bustle
On the streets and subways of London, I’ve seen a lot of people pushing/hurrying past other pedestrians and I wondered, “What’s the rush? If you miss this train, another will be along in a few minutes.”
Then I realized that they’re not pushing past because they’re in a hurry – they’re just annoyed that other people are not moving at their designated pace. So, they’re not driven by their own self-importance or poor time management, they simply want to get away from all the other people.
Perhaps they should consider not living in a big city that attracts a lot of visitors.
Quiet lights
It was dark when I started my walk this morning.
As I walked towards the hills behind my house, all was dark and quiet except one house with a light on.
It reminded me of a holiday picture. I was delighted to witness it here in my urban setting since it’s normally a picture from the countryside – covered in snow with just the movement of the smoke from the chimney.
Lovely way to start the day.
100 = 1,000
I read that walking backwards for 100 steps is equivalent to walking 1,000. Now, I don’t know how or why or if it’s true – but I’m doing it anyway. It definitely uses a completely different set of muscles and requires much more thought in each step – but I don’t know if that translates to burning calories. Nothing wrong with being self-delusional.
Infrastructure
Some of the roads near my house are so bad that it’s reminiscent of driving on an old country road with the gravel pinging the car, no matter how slow you go.
Imagine my surprise when I was driving one morning and realized that they had restriped the asphalt! They may have just painted a bunch of rocks because there wasn’t much surface for the stripes.
A few weeks later, they demolished and rebuilt all of the street corners with the yellow bumpy pads for all of the (zero) blind walkers in the neighborhood. They are in greater danger of falling into a pothole than they are of stepping out into traffic. I imagine the moms with sleeping babies in strollers are not happy about pushing the stroller over the yellow bumpy pads.
When I was walking across the yellow bumpy pads, I realized that if someone followed the directionality of the pads, they would end up walking kitty corner into the intersection. In order to cross the street correctly, you have to pivot 90 degrees from the direction of the pad.
I don’t understand painting stripes on rocks and I don’t understand putting in pads that direct walkers into a diagonal, and unsafe, path.
