Tina's Walking Journal 🌳🚶‍🏻‍‍♀️🏡

November 26 2025

Days since military dictatorship: 218
Temperature: 38°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: Undetectable from the north
Listening to: nothing

Waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to get done cooking, my girlfriend and I are walking around the neighbourhood. This is her first time walking this particular route, but I'm pretty familiar with it. I get to introduce her to such thrilling sights as the Spider Tree & Bug Bush, the Broken Security Floodlight, and Marty's Place. Except it's daytime in late November, so Marty is gone and the floodlight won't be blinking right now.

The sidewalks in this neighbourhood are so narrow! I mean, yeah, the Americans with Disabilities Act, but also it's too narrow for a couple to hold hands whilst having a stroll! Oh well, I'll make it work. She can walk on the pavement, I'll walk in the grass.

Since it is Thanksgiving day, there's like NO ONE about. Except these 2 kids playing on their big-wheels. We'll just cross the road here to get out of their way.

Yep, the aforementioned Spider Tree & Bug Bush. Devoid of spiders or bugs at the moment, but here it is!

We'll go down to the Not Thin Blue Line house to have a look at their collection of Christmas inflateables. As you'll recall, they do lights too, but as I said, it's daytime right now.

Not much else to say. I'm just enjoying being out here with my gf. I always wanted to walk around the neighbourhood holding hands with a pretty girl. Now I am. The country might be falling apart at the seams, corruption might have encroached into all levels of government like mould slowly consuming a loaf of bread, but right now, we're happy. At last, we're both happy :)

October 14 2025

Days since military dictatorship: 174 (5 months, 23 days)
Days since Government Shutdown: 14
Temperature: 55°F
Condition: Overcast, light rain
Wind: Undetectable from the north
Listening to: SO-LO (Danny Elfman [Oingo Boingo], 1984 MCA)

I went for a walk a couple of times since the last entry, but I didn't write about it because they were pretty copypaste. While I planned to go for a walk yesterday, I got so tired out going to the store that I just couldn't. Anyway, enough excuses.

Loads of empty drink cans lying about in the grass. As though someone parked his truck here and King of the Hilled a case of beer with a few mates.

The last couple times I came here, there was ground fog. No such thing today. Of course, the humidity is quite a bit higher than the dew point, so that could explain a lot. Interesting thing about the very last time I was here (the time I sent R pictures of the ground fog), I could see my breath. Can't do it today, but like. Give it a couple months.

Also the last couple times I came here, the sun made it impossible to see out my windscreen and made it really hard to walk up the hill. I would come out here earlier, but I discovered my new used car has a headlamp out and I'd rather not risk encountering a police who owns a Gryffindor coffee cup.

I wonder what makes people do that? The "varsity athlete to police officer" pipeline is real and it claims another ponytailed blonde girl every day.

Bird. Some kind of falcon or hawk. He made the archetypal hawk sound. I'm sorry, mate; but if you're going to be looking for mice and groundsquirrels and stuff, you won't find any here. Too much pesticide, chemical fertiliser, and mowing of grass. Plus, the owls come out here earlier than you and they get what mice do live here.

It must be weird living right next door to a Walmart. If those weren't so-called "high-end" condos (read as, regular condos but priced insanely high), i could almost see this being like a company town. But the people who live here don't shop at Walmart, they get their shit delivered from the internet. Anyway, loads of traffic right now. Everyone off to their proper place in the corporate feudal machine. Cog #33092 fits into Sprocket #40409, Gear #10243-A has caused Gear #10243-B to transmute Cog #A00052 and must be replaced by Gear #24057, as Gear #10243-B is now a cottagecore streamer on TikTok (Asset V-7/2801-C).

Someone told me that the city installed lampposts along the Rail Trail. I'll have to check that out one day. But not today. It's supposed to rain later and I don't want to risk being on a limestone trail in the rain.

September 19 2025

Days since military dictatorship: 149 (4 months, 29 days)
Temperature: 60°F
Condition: Clear, intense humidity
Wind: Undetectable from the east
Listening to: Real Life Fast Travel (Tina Rosenthal, 2025 LCI Music)

I don't often listen to my own music, so let's see how it holds up to walking around the park, shall we? After all, I had bike trails and long-distance travel in mind when I wrote a lot of these. So, why not?

It was pretty hard to get here. My windscreen went completely opaque right at the most inopportune times because the sun bloomed all the smudge marks from ineffectual cleaning and the glare nearly blinded me. I'll know better next week than to go to the park right after sun-up.

ANyway, I got here, no one died, no property was destroyed, nothing to worry about.

The school system got its funding cut by the state legislature, trying to toady up to the fascist republicans in Washington. I don't know what they hope to gain from an alliance with Donald Treason, but it's caused the city schools to close on Friday. The kids love it, but their parents are all millennials and gen-z. They remember the way "normal" used to be, and this isn't it. Whatever happens to the federal government under fascism, one thing is for sure: gen-alpha, gen-beta, and gen-gamma are going to be different. It's not going to be the same as it was in the '90s and Y2K. Whether that be for good or ill is up to them.

Birds. Lots of birds. A din of miscellaneous twittering and cheeping. I guess those trees have berries in them.

This isn't a fox path anymore, it's a genuine trail junction. There's a drinking fountain and everything. Well, not everything— there's still no restroom.

Oh, "Real Life Fast Travel" fits this trail perfectly doesn't it?

Gravel in my shoes. I should have worn socks. Oh well, I've got gravel in my socks too.

This tree got struck by lightning about 10 years ago and all of its bark peeled up and burned. The whole tree would have probably caught fire and burned most of the trail down if the lighting weren't part of a thunderstorm complex bringing torrential rain. The rain put out the fire, but the tree is dead. There's been storms since, blowing more and more bits of it off. It'll just sit here, still rooted though. I mean, why not? It's not like it's a problem. It didn't fall over onto the trail, it's not in any danger of dropping large hunks of wood onto the trail either, it's not bothering anyone, and lightning has been setting trees on fire for long before there were humans, so right. Stumps and dead trees are part of nature too, you know.

Talking of nature, it smells like nature right here. Rotting underbrush, wet leaves, damp grass, stuff like that. I like that smell, it means I'm a real person. Don't ask how it means that, I'm not totally sure either, but it's nice anyway.

There used to be a badger hole around here somewhere. I've seen a couple badgers around here, but only from far away. American badgers are all teeth, claws, and bad attitude. No match for my springy human legs though, if one should decide to tangle with me.

Wouldn't you know it, despite all my concern to the contrary, I've been walking on these trails for nearly 20 years and never once have I been savaged by a wild animal.

I still have gravel in my shoes.

SOmeone coming toward me on the trail. Oh well, this is my stop anyway.

Leaning against the memorial stone to empty my shoes of their gravel. Some of that gravel is stuck to my feet actually.

Now that i'm out of the windbreak on the bike trail, there actually is a breeze. Not much of one, but enough to be interesting.

This used to be a long walk for me. But, then I started hiking the entire trail at Nature Preserve Park. This just feels like nothing anymore. I should walk all the way out to Numerical County Road one of these days.

September 11 2025

Days since military dictatorship: 141 (4 months, 21 days)
Temperature: 63°F
Condition: Partly cloudy with ground fog
Wind: none
Listening to: Myself making a verbal diary entry (again)

I do that fairly often these days. I walk and talk at the same time. I guess I need new playlists or something.

I haven't been able to get out here lately because my hours have been kind of strange. It was too late by the time I woke up and I would crash about an hour before I could take a stroll anywhere. R helped me reset my hours though, so that was nice of her. Now I can come out here again!

Not much has happened here in the week since I was here last. It looks like some squirrels have done a bit of minor pruning to these trees next to the softball pitch though.

Apparently, my (conservative and hella transphobic) extended family came to this park a couple of days ago when they drove through town en route to something or other. They were here at the same time I usually like to walk. It's a good job I didn't go out that day.

Last time I was here, it was cloudy. Today, there's nothing stopping the sun being in my eyes for much of the trip around the park.

3 maintenance trucks. I wonder why they're going so fast.

September 3 2025

Days since military dictatorship: 133 (4 months, 13 days)
Temperature: 72°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: Light from the north
Listening to: Myself making a verbal diary entry

It's a bit later in the day than i usually like to go out, but it's better than not walking again today. Still letting the joy of having a functional car sink it, I decided to walk at the park again, mostly because I vowed not to let her just sit and rot like the sedan did for most of its life, so let's get out and go somewhere.

It's a weekday, school is in session, the likelihood of encountering an unauthorised marathon/mass jogging event at the park is very minimal today.

What did any of that mean? Part of the reason I didn't walk at the park yesterday was there was a lot of people jogging in tandem around the park. It seemed to be an organised event, though there were no signs or any indication that it would be happening, suggesting they didn't bother letting the city know they wanted to monopolise the park. When I came to the crest of the hill, the event's organisers, a pair of university kids probably, tried to stop me and turn me around. But, I was like "you know this is a one-way road, mate, don't you? There's no way I'm going to be able to turn this SUV around on this tiny, narrow road." Obviously, they hadn't expected to meet any adversity, and when I reached for my phone, they stepped back into the grass and let me by. I guess they thought I was going to ring the Parks & Rec department or something. Obstructing public property is a class-3 misdemeanour, after all.

None of that happened today, though. With the exception of a few scattered people walking their dogs, there's no one here at all.

Parking in the carpark nearest the only hill in the area.

I love the cool breeze and the overcast sky. It looks like it could start raining at any moment. Except, I checked the forecast and no more rain is expected until tonight. This and early in the morning before the sun comes up are my favourite conditions to walk in. I kinda let Trump scare me into not walking in the early morning, though. Then, my regular people hours got reset and I was getting up too late.

Today was Siren Test Day. At 10:30, they turned on the tornado sirens for 3 minutes. It sounded like there was something wrong with the 3T22 on the university campus, it was really stroppy. I thought it was in Attack mode for a while until I realised, no, it's just not working properly. They used to test the Thunderbolt siren downtown in Attack mode, which was kind of off-putting. I'm used to Fast Wail or Alert mode. Then COVID happened and the city's emergency manager died. Now the Thunderbolt is gone and so is the old apartment building it used to be installed on top of. What is it now? I don't know. If the new city council is holding true to form, high-rise luxury condos, probably. Like we're hurting for high-end real estate in this city.

Considering how much of this city is crumbling to the whims of the corporate feudal state, I just realised that I don't appreciate this park enough. This spot right here is especially beautiful right now. The grey clouds, the cool wind, the slightly damp grass. This whole area used to be a "Prairie in the Park". Read as, "the city diverted our funding to the police again and now we can't afford to mow the grass here". Fortunately, they stopped that, turned the soil to kill the weeds, and replanted the fescue. Now it looks like the perfect place to take your camping chair and drink a coffee under the trees. I'm so glad this is here, and that I'm here to see it. This whole area might be tract housing in the next 5 years, but right now, it's one of my favourite places ever. I love it here. I complain that it's flat and I call it the "boring park" sometimes, but that doesn't mean I don't love this place.

There's a sign in the playground carpark talking about how much funding the project received and from where. Most of it was from the Department of the Interior. I guess giving the city the money to build this was one of the last things the Biden administration ever did. 'Cos if Trump has his way, there's going to be casinos and golf resorts on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Can't I go for 12 hours without thinking about that stupid orange bastard? I'm just doing his work for him, giving him my mental real-estate for free.

September 1 2025

Days since military dictatorship: 131 (4 months, 11 days)
Temperature: 63°F
Condition: Overcast, light rain
Wind: Moderate from the east
Listening to: Rain on my umbrella

It's Labour Day in the US today (so, I should probably say "Labor Day" instead), but i know I'm not going to encounter anyone at the park. Why? It's raining. Other people tend to associate rain with depression and sadness, but I don't. Rain to me is a symbol of cleanliness. Things that shouldn't be there getting washed away, the promise of new opportunities, and being alone with my thoughts for a change. I love the rain, mostly because no one else ever goes out in it.

It's a little windy for my umbrella, but as long as i face it into the wind, it won't blow away.

That's a very small bird up there. He's trying to fly into that tree, but he keeps getting blown about by the wind. It must be a hard day for birds.

This "No Parking Anytime" sign has a bindweed growing on it. Presumably, it's thought the sign is a tree, so it's burrowing into it trying to find water and chlorophyll, but only coming out the other side of the signpost.

I'm still mostly thinking about my best friends. Their song isn't making me cry anymore, so that's a good sign. The fact I'm not crying about their song anymore doesn't mean that it's lost any of its emotional impact, it's just that I've cried about it all I can.

Wait, are we seriously all the way on the other side of the park now? I haven't really even noticed. I've been thinking about too much other stuff to really notice where I've been.

The wind shifted. Actually no, it hasn't. I'm just going the opposite direction now.

A maintenance truck with its yellow flashing lights. I wonder what the driver could be doing. There's not really any reason I can think of to drive on the grass like that.

It's gonna rain like this all day. Cool!

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