Tina's Walking Journal 🌳🚶🏻♀️🏡
Archive
May 2025.
May 29 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 40 (2 months)
Temperature: 67°F
Condition: Mostly cloudy
Wind: Light from the north
Listening to: Park sounds
If you can believe your eyes, ears, and extremities, gamers— I'm actually back at the park. I drove here under my own power. Since my mum hasn't been to the park in longer (the passenger seat of That '90s Car broke about a year ahead of the rest of the car), I offered to take her there too. We'll walk our own routes, but I want to do this. I even made a batch of my world-famous Existential Crisis Scones for mum's friend K to show my appreciation for her giving us her old car gratis. She would have accepted it if we gave her nothing, but that wouldn't have sat right, so I figured, hey, K told me how much she likes my scones, so that's what I'm going to pay her with. Suffice to say, she accepted and immediately opened the bag and ate one while I was still signing the affidavit.
Well, I'm not going to stop taking my walks around the university just because I have a new used car now, but I'm grateful to be here. It's a perfect day for the park. Plus, since I got used to walking around a residential area mostly occupied by university kids, it's less of a problem walking around a park at the same time other people are here. I used to say "oh it's so crowded here" when there was 1 other car in the lot. No more.
Like I said, perfect day. It's not too hot, it's windy out of the north, and it smells like the park. It's interesting how different the park smells, relative to the university or the rest of the neighbourhood. The university smells like sod and chemical fertiliser, the neighbourhood smells like rusty metal, grass clippings, and small engine exhaust; the park smells like tall grass, clover, trees, the grain milling plant across the field there, and fresh air.
There's more anthills per square metre here than at home. This one even has ants coming in and going out of it.
The squirrels here are a lot more cautious of humans than the ones at home. One time last week, I even had Milton Squirrel climb up onto the porch and eat a pear fragment while I was standing there. The squirrels at home just don't care. Really neither do the birds.
I've often thought about making bumper stickers that say "Golf Sucks and So Does Your Country Club". The golf course over there was lush and green all throughout the drought. The park looked absolute shite, but the golf course looked good enough for TV. All the city golf courses are like that, even the tiny-ass Antelope Park course. I'm surprised any other city functions are funded at all considering the top 2 expenditures every quarter are police and golf course maintenance.
Don't want to be cynical. This is not a time of cynicism, this is a time of joy! I"m back at the park after almost a year! I'm here with the robins and the squirrels, smelling the fresh air, hiking all the way around the whole park. The last time I went this far, I was playing Pokémon Go and it was 2017.
The car has enough cargo space, I could bring my bike out here.
Holy shit, gamers. I just realised something. I have a car, I'm at the park, I need to go to the store, I'm going to go home and sit in my new gaming chair to play The Sims and ToeJam & Earl, then I'm going to start Star Trek: Voyager tonight. Everything is back to normal.
But, about those neighbourhood walks? I definitely have to keep doing those. I can feel those walks in my thighs, whereas this park only has one hill. I'm not feeling this walk in my thighs so much as the soles of my feet. I'm probably going to have that same problem with Pioneer's Park, too. There's only 1 hill along the route I plan to take. It's a pretty good-sized one, but there is only one. At home, it's constantly up and down, more down than up in this one bit, more up than down in this other bit.
But hey! I went to the park today!
May 26 2025
I'm writing this on my phone because it feels too good sitting in front of my studio fan to go and get my Linux laptop :P so I'll format this better when I can get to my laptop.
It's raining. Overcast, 63F, wind light from the east. 37 days under military dictatorship. Listening to the rain hit my umbrella.
This red button down shirt sure does a good job of hiding my chest. We're at a solid midrange DDD last time I checked. If I were slimmer than I am rigjt now, I'd be too busty to hide... of course, if I were slimmer, I wouldn't have DDD's. Anyway.
I finally found my umbrella, so i can walk in the rain again. As I recall, that was a bit of a thing during the fall.
The robins are out in force, looking for worms. Of course, my presence is somewhat disruptive. I think I'll just stop here and wait for that one to find a worm.
He got one. 'scuse me, mate-- gotta get past.
Memorial day weekend. The residence halls are all now totally empty, with very few exceptions.
All the athletic events are over now too. 2024-25 is REAL over. Time for 2025-26. If Trump has his way, there won't be any but a couple dozen bougies and nepos at any university in the country.
Walking on the other side of the street from normal. I think this is my legs' way of telling me they want to walk down closer to Union General Avenue. Today, it just means I'll go on the other side of the street. Maybe I WILL make it all the way to Union General during the fall, but not yet.
The flowers are already visibly benefitting from all this rain we've had lately.
The umbrella is kind of hard to hold now that I've got boobs. The area of my shoulder I used to rest the umbrella against has been doing business as my right boob for the past 14 months. How can you be out of practise holding an umbrella? That's stupid.
The way I have to hold the umbrella is making it hard to see over my shoulder. Why am I wasting your time like this?
Weird unmarked van I've never seen before. Oh. Amazon delivery guy. I'm sure there's some billionaire logic behind only using your branded vans occasionally, but not being a billionaire, I can't even imagine what that would be.
Oh, here it is again.
More robins looking for worms.
The presence of a building on campus called "Bald Hall South" would suggest there used to be a "Bald Hall North" at one point.
May 23 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 34 (1 month, 4 days)
Temperature: 60°F
Condition: Mostly cloudy
Wind: Light from the south
Listening to: Nothing (I'm making another verbal journal entry at the same time)
Random furniture strewn about the lawn. Can't cross here because there are people talking on the porch over there. I'll have to take the road again.
Going behind the residence halls instead of through the carpark. Might be a bad idea.
So many maintenance men. So many. Golf cart behind me, walking in the grass.
Now a random-ass wrestling coach looking guy. I guess this is the wrestling building though.
I can't finish this.
May 20 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 31 (1 month, 1 day)
Temperature: 54°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: Moderate from the northeast
Listening to: Nothing (I'm making a verbal journal entry at the same time)
It's supposed to unseasonably cool all week and it'll be overcast most of that time, so I figure I should get out while I can. So far, I've been averaging every other day. I'm not real sure what's been keeping me inside, but I decided not to let it today.
The path in front of this house is actually clear for a change.
For a second there, i thought that weird cursive word on the back of that car was a stick figure family decal. That would be extremely strange, considering I know that car to be owned by a girl who just graduated from this university. There's no time in the corporate feudal state for school, work, and a family. You can have work and school or work and a family, but not all 3. Especially not around here. Anyway, I can't read the word because it's in the worst, most illegible script I've ever seen. It might not say anything actually.
Upon closer inspection, the wording engraved into the retaining wall here isn't actually Trajan. I don't know how I could possibly have mistaken it for Trajan when it's plainly Arno. That having been the case, the computer this wall was designed on was most likely running some form of Windows. Given the age of the surrounding structure, most likely Windows 2000 or XP.
The rest of the university is silent, but athletics carry on to the bitter end around here. We can't live without our sports in this state.
This skip hasn't been emptied since commencement day despite the bin vans coming round. I wonder if that's significant.
It looks like there's some kind of event for the children of the university's students here. Well, not here here, but down there by the science building. I guess I'll be cutting through the campus today.
THis is really cutting my walk short. I guess I could have gone through the science building's carpark and up the alley behind the church. Oh well, I didn't do that.
No one left in this flat. The carpark is completely empty. Come to think of it, there's no one left in that flat either.
I guess it was just serendipity that I was able to meet #6 while I came back from my walk that one time a couple weeks ago. I've only ever seen them through closed windows since then.
May 18 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 29
Temperature: 50°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: Moderate from the east
Listening to: "Once in a Lifetime" (Talking Heads, from REMAIN IN LIGHT, 1980 Sire)
After feeling like I isolated myself yesterday, I decided that walking in the mornings is no longer optional. After spending most of the month of April scared inside by a fascist bloviating shitbag, I can't just stay in anymore. I realised that walking is part of my sanity regimen, even when it's 15 fucktillion degrees out here.
I'm just going to assume from this point that I won't be able to walk on the sidewalk on this side of the street. There's always something blocking the pavement in front of that house. Today it's something like a futon.
The flowers under this tree sure didn't last long. They're all wilted and brown now. Only their leaves still look alive. Probably it's the chemical fertiliser's killed the bees. No bees, no pollenation, no flowers.
The high school's graduation was yesterday. Shortly after I left, they changed the schedule so graduation and summer holiday happen closer to each other. That way, other super-seniors didn't have to waste away in study hall for 2 weeks. I always figured that, if I ever suddenly got a whole lot of money, like from the lottery or something; after donating to everyone's GFM's and Ko-Fi's on tumblr, I would start a scholarship trust for high school seniors who didn't get to graduate with the rest of their class. The school would automatically submit your name and you'd start college with $5000 in free money. Maybe you're not going to college, cool, cool; here's $5000 just for hanging back and not playing the corporate feudal game. You still matter, kid; even though everyone else tells you otherwise.
Anyway, the point is, since public school graduation just happened, that means the university's spring quarter just ended. All the people still in residence halls and school-owned flats have until the end of the week to get out.
Going through the quad 2 days ago was interesting, but I really would prefer going by the athletic fields. There's no maintenance cart there today, while I think I hear a lawn mower over to the west.
"Former site of McGee Stadium", it says, etched into the wall next to the flagpoles in 300-point Trajan. That font sure gets around. I haven't seen any new signs in Helvetica lately... have we as a society finally gotten over our Helvetica obsession? It used to be Helvetica, then Gotham was all the rage. Then Montserrat replaced Gotham. Now it's whatever sans-serif Google Font the cut'n'paste design app is using today. It used to be that I could tell what kind of computer something was made on just by looking at the typography. Was there Helvetica someplace? Probably macOS. Entirely in Arial? Probably Windows. But now, no one uses design software on computers anymore, they all use the same Android app. Boring. Anyway, this retaining-wall plaque was made on OS X, probably one of the versions named after big cats.
There's another person out walking, approaching from Numerical on Dead State Senator Street. I'll play the "oblivious millennial" card and pretend I don't see him. Then, I'll walk faster, which is easy since this is downhill.
The ironic bit is, the guy behind me probably remembers hearing all the songs in my current playlist on the radio when he was my age. Is that actually ironic, though? No, that was the wrong word. "Interesting" would be better. I'm sure he got really tired of hearing all but one of these songs constantly coming out of some radio station or another. On the other side of it, I'm sure I'll form some polarising opinions about music when I'm his age. I just hope I don't ever go "It used to be about the music," because it was never about just music. Some people did music as content, but most people had at least occasional politics in their music. It just wouldn't be music without politics. I mean, like, listen to the subtext in all of the music that's played in my ears so far! "Once in a Lifetime": you got to where you are by a confluence of unlikely events. "Girls Just Want to Have Fun": women's lib and trans rights anthem. "Where Do the Boys Go": waste time while you're young because it's going to go away fast. There's no single song in this entire playlist that's "just about the music", even if the underlying message is just "Holy shit, I own a Fairlight now!"
As usual, there's a lot of squirrels about. I wonder why Americans pronounce it "squrl". Isn't that hard to say? You condense a 2-syllable word into 1 syllable by omitting a vowel. Of course, there's a lot about American English I don't understand, and it can be summed up in a single word: "vapourise". How do you hear that word spoken and decide it needs to be spelt "vaporize"? Like some kind of button on a computer control panel in '30s sci-fi. I should say "1930s sci-fi", since it's going to be the '30s again in 5 years here.
Not going to deal with the stairs today. Not that there are many of them, but I've gone down this ramp just to go up 5 stairs every other day for a week at this stage, I'm just going around the berms and not dealing with the shift in elevation. I've earned it.
It's windy enough from the right direction today I can tell what's printed on that flag. It's being difficult and not unfurling very-- okay, "Tree Campus". I was a little concerned when I saw "TR", but it says "TREE" not "TRUMP". Like I said, it's the wrong colour for a Trump flag anyway. The American flag we can't really escape here, because it's outside on the grounds of a respected university campus in the middle of America. We'll give them that one. I just hope the classrooms don't all have flags in them. Never could understand why my public school classrooms all had flags in them. Like, at first, I just assumed that's how everything is. You go to a school in whatever country, the flag of that country will be there. Then we had an exchange student from Japan and she said that it's actually illegal to display the flag of Japan in classrooms. Looking into the matter a bit further, I discovered that the US was the only country where you not only had to display the flag, but recite a pledge of allegiance to it. Other countries don't have pledges of allegiance, just America. It's so ingrained in our society that picture books about school show classrooms with flags in them. This is just how it is here.
[A Message From the Future:] I looked it up on Wikipedia and apparently the United Kingdom, the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, and the Bahamas also have pledges of allegiance. The Bahamian and South Korean ones are not flag-specific however, and the United Kingdom one is, as one would expect, sworn to the monarch.
Looking down Catholic Street here, it appears as though the crossroads of Catholic and Numerical is blocked off with barricades. I also see strings of pennants, suggesting there's going to be some kind of pedestrian-only event here, rather than road construction.
There's a young woman walking her dog on the other side of the road. If I could have her curves, I'd be happy. My boobs are already bigger than hers, but I'd gladly exchange them for a Pixar Mom dumptruck ass.
This residence hall is actually called "Centennial Hall"? If it was truly built at the university's centennial anniversary, that would mean that it was built in 1985. Hmm... yeah, I can see that. My last flat was built in 1981, and there are a lot of design elements in common with this place.
May 16 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 27
Temperature: 69°F
Condition: Mostly cloudy
Wind: Strong from the west
Listening to: the wind blowing the trees about
Going out in the middle of the day for a change. Why not? Normally I come out here in the morning, but there's no rule that says I have to take my strolls in the morning. A cold-front's come through so the temperature's dropped about 20 degrees from where it was 2 days ago and it's windy enough out it might blow me into the next county. That might be fun. Wait, what's the next county east of here? [REDACTED]. Oh. Well, never mind then.
Miscellaneous furniture apart from just toys on the sidewalk in front of that house there. I'll just cross the road then. This will also allow me to avoid that group of people having a chat in front of the student flats.
The blue flowers at the base of that tree have become various colours of other flowers. I can't tell what they are though, because I don't know.
There's a maintenance cart blocking the path over by the entrance to the athletic field, so I'll just go on the other side of the building then, between the indoor athletic building and the non-traditional student admissions building from the '50s.
I haven't been this way since summer 2020. Similar temperature that day, less wind.
There's the university's tornado siren: a Federal Signal 3T22. It sounds exactly like the old square trumpets, but it doesn't rotate. It doesn't have to, it has horns on all sides of its windchoppers. If I'm outside on siren-test day, I can hear it wind up and wind down. Since it's controlled from the maintenance building on the campus rather than the city emergency management office, its schedule is slightly different. It often goes off as many as 30 seconds before the city-owned FS 2001-130s do.
It occurs to me that I've seen publicity photos taken from this angle. Students pretending to have fun sitting under trees and walking to class. False advertising. They want your money up until the point where you show them your 1.5 GPA and then it's "Oh. Well, we'll let you know." They never let you know.
Like I said once, this university doesn't have as much money as Absurdly Influential State Football University does, so they can't just dynamite their old buildings from the '50s and build glittering towers of wealth and prosperity. Most of the buildings on campus date from the '50s or '60s. A few were renovated in the '90s, but only one has ever been completely demolished and rebuilt elsewhere.
My mum's old office boss used to work in this building. She's probably on a board somewhere or retired. Her son is probably off playing house with some girl someplace. Me? I just keep trudging along, unchanging, lonely, unsure of my place in society. Oh, muscles! Look at that guy! Oh, so cute, so cute! I'm sorry, what was I saying?
Now that the university isn't blocking the wind anymore, I'm getting loads of dust blown at me. Where is all this dust coming from? That grain elevator they tore down I warrant. Asbestos, various other things that'll give me silicosis, I'm sure.
The seniors may be gone, but experimental timepoints wait for no one. THere's still quite a few people in the science building carpark.
I've had to pee for about 1 1/4 miles now. I hope I can make it home in time.
May 15 2025
Didn't take any strolls today. I was feeling pretty wiped from my appointments yesterday and was having some really weird dreams, so i decided to just forget about it. Tomorrow though.
May 14 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 25
Temperature: 75°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: "Are U X-Perienced" (Devo, from SHOUT, 1984 Warner)
Welcome to summer low temperatures, gamers. I remember not too long ago when this was the high temperature. Nope. Nope, not gonna force myself into a rant about unchecked global climate change.
There are numbers written on certain of the pavement slabs. I saw a couple of city surveyors around here a while back, but I'm fairly certain these numbers were not here until yesterday. I don't remember seeing them on Monday and they certainly weren't here on Sunday when I was meeting S and their little kitty.
There's actually a kid on the porch of the house with all the toys blocking the sidewalk. I think he's a friend, since he's talking to Dad 1 through the open door. I'm not looking, I'm just walking here.
Going through the residence hall carpark again. I won't have a lot more opportunity to do this.
This car is on. No, that generator is running.
The unmarked Ford Police Interceptor that used to park here during the winter is gone. Wrong colour car for ICE. Back then, we weren't so afraid of that though. Well, Latines were. I, a white woman, was not. If anyone official-looking demands of me the location of "illegal immigrants", I'm going to give them a street crossroad in a part of town that I know to be completely white nationalist, then dash back home while they waste their time.
It's still early enough that there's a cool breeze right here, even though it's a wide-open paved area.
People in maintenance carts just sitting there completely blocking the path. I'll just stand here and pretend to be on the phone until they leave.
The rest of the school may be out of session, but athletics are carrying on to the bitter end. The student calendar has some athletic event or another attested every week until June. Probably during and after that, too. The data entry clerk in charge of putting events onto the online calendar page just hasn't gotten to it yet.
"X-Perienced" playing again. Next. "Puppet Boy", another Devo song from the same record. Sometimes I wonder how VLC randomises its playlists. If "Whip It" plays next, I'm changing lists.
The grass along the verge between the road and the sidewalk might be clean enough for me to pick a stalk of for S's kitty. I know my own little kitty loved to chew on those great puffy stalks of grass with the seed pods at the end. Still, I don't want to risk the possibility that chemical fertiliser or car undercarriage gunge got onto it. Maybe I can find a better patch of grass somewhere else.
"Africa" from Toto IV. A bit predictable perhaps, but at least we got away from Devo.
It would be cool in the shade here by the theatre building were it not for the building itself blocking the breeze. It still smells like flowers over here though.
The garden in the middle of the main quad reminds me of The Sims 3. I remember when it was new, there was a lot about The Sims 3 that seemed lazily slapped together for a swift quid, but the one thing I liked was the extensive selection of flowers and plants. The Sims 2 was still pretty much rooted in The Sims 1 when it came to plants, but TS3 was more like a landscape design simulator. I built way more parks and flower gardens with it than houses until I started collecting expansion pack bundles in 2013. The Sims 4 has not lived up to the standard set by its predecessor in the landscape architecture department.
This robin insists he wants to run in front of me. It's kind of funny how they'll run for a bit, then stop and see if I'm still back there, then they'll run for a bit again and look if I'm still there, and so it goes until they decide that I'm too much of an inconvenience. Then they fly away onto a sign or something and chirp at me.
There's a breeze again, but it's not cool anymore. I think we passed the "cool morning/hot afternoon" demarcation line back on the quad. It wasn't nearly as cool by the theatre building as it was by the athletic fields.
"Legal Tender" by The B-52's playing now. Interesting that line, "living alone and trying to get by, but honey, prices have shot through the sky". That was back when a loaf of bread cost 75 cents. New cars cost $15.000. Whole ass new 3-bedroom houses cost $50.000.
May 13 2025
I wasn't feeling well enough to go for a walk today. Sorry.
May 12 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 23
Temperature: 62°F (again!)
Condition: A few clouds
Wind: almost undetectable from the south
Listening to: "Red Light" (Siouxsie and the Banshees, from KALEIDOSCOPE, 1980 Polydor)
One thing about taking walks in the dark, I couldn't get any of that precious vitamin D from the Sun. As much as I love Luna, the only beneficial radiation she gives is photons.
I would imagine that the school year is over now. I know the university had its commencement ceremony on Friday... well, maybe not yet. Maybe this is the public schools' last week in session. I hope it's not their last week ever. Of course, it's not entirely up to the federal government; the city council would have something to say about that. I just helped someone get elected to the school board who promised an increase in funding for new textbooks, so I imagine we're probably okay here.
I thought those leftover "congrats grad" balloons on that porch railing was a person! What probably used to be a bright pink has faded to white-people skin colour over the 2 days it's been exposed to the sun.
Oh! Graduation! Of course! I can walk through the residence hall carpark today!
The high whispy cirrus clouds look exceptionally summer-like. THe last time I was down here, it was snowing and there were no leaves on the trees or really any other foliage to speak of. Today though, it looks green and shady, everywhere you want to be on a hot summer day.
Really, I quite like being out here in the relatively-cool summer morning. I remember getting driven to daycare everyday in the summer when I was a kid, knowing how hot it would get, how bad the radiant heat from the pavement would be as we trudged down to the downtown pool, but for the couple of moments that I left the house to get to the car and left the car to get into the building, it was a pleasantly cool breeze. At the CLC daycare I went to later, we always had outside time in the morning, so we could play in the cool morning air. Since our daycare met at that unitarian church, there was a massive greenspace on the east side of the property, presumably so weddings and funerals could have photo opportunities, which always seemed about 10° cooler than the carpark at the opposite end. I was deep into my Super Mario kick at that time, Super Mario RPG having just been released, Yoshi's Island receiving newfound media hype, and of course The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 seeing its home video renaissance. So, I was able to cope with the heat by pretending the greenspace was Grass Land and the carpark was Desert Land. There was always some shady spot under a tree, that was a Toad House.
"Cash In Your Face" by Stevie Wonder playing right now. It might be a disembodied track in a randomly slapped-together playlist, but I always try to honour the fact that Steve is singing about racism that he, himself, had to endure. There's a lot of anger behind that embellishment right before the bridge. Discrimination is nothing new to Black and Brown people, it's just now that it's happening to White people, now it's a problem. If generations of African-Americans can survive it, I'm sure I can too.
It's just as desolate around here now as it was during Christmas break. Of course, that was the end of the fall quarter too, so the professors also were rebooting for the winter quarter. The semester ending yesterday means every single rubbish skip on the property is overflowing. In this house, sanitation workers are heroes, end of story.
There seems to be somebody coming from the opposite direction. You know what? I could just cut right through the central quad, couldn't I? I can just turn here, bother a few squirrels, and walk right through to the other side of the campus without anyone looking at me sideways.
I don't often get to come this way. The last time I was here, I was playing Pokeémon Go, taking over the Gym at the Blue Thing Sculpture. I know the installation itself has a different name, but its name in PokéGo/Ingress was "Blue Thing Sculpture". Probably still is. Is that game still going? I don't know. I quit playing it for all time a couple years ago.
It's not windy enough to tell what this other flag says. THere's an American flag, naturally; but there's also a flag under it that has text printed on it. A bad idea all around considering flags are designed to move constantly. Of course, I worked in an engraving shop for a season in 2016. People genuinely do want the entire text of Paradise Lost transcribed onto a single grain of Basmati rice in 4 languages. The colour is wrong for a Trump flag so that's good, I guess.
Approaching the science building as I was from the south, I never noticed there's a patio on the first and third floors before.
I'm kind of surprised, the "All Are Welcome Here" rainbow flower sign in front of the Methodist church has been here, unspoilt, since at least 2020. No one has painted swastikas or anything over it, it hasn't even faded. Presumably someone from inside the building comes out to touch it up occasionally, because it's in exactly the same condition as it was on Primary Election Day 2020 when I took a PokéGo snapshot with Pyrrho (my Flareon) in front of it.
It looks like there's a cat lying on the pavement by the frat house. He's seen me and isn't sure which way to jump. I'll just turn here and not bother him any more.
"Rise Up and Vote" is sure packed full of rubbish. THere's a printer box on the very top. WHy DO I KEep TYping DOuble CApitals WHenever I HAve TO TYpe WOrds THat BEgin WIth "TH"?
I was hoping to see #6 walking their cat again this morning, but no such luck. Oh well, there'll be other opportunities.
May 11 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 22
Temperature: 62°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: "Where Do All My Friends Go" (Oingo Boingo, BOI-NGO, 1987 MCA)
It's HUMID out here, gamers. Summer in Armpit, USA I guess.
Well, it should be humid. It's May. There was a random fluke a few years ago where it was 80°F on May 7 and then 33°F and snowing on May 8, but that only ever happened once. Also, it's the 11th.
The rabbits of the really early morning have been replaced by squirrels. They're all over the place. I've already encountered 5 squirrels and I haven't even crossed the road yet.
It looks like the broken glass has finally been cleaned up from this front lawn. Also the overgrown lawn has been mowed. Piles of grass clippings have replaced piles of broken glass. An improvement, but not much of one.
It looks like the lamp is still broken. Can't say about the security floodlight, because at least it has the good sense to be turned off in daylight.
More squirrels. I feel like I'm inconveniencing them by walking here. Oh well.
Fewer squirrels over here by the coffee-scented fence. Maybe it's the coffee smell that drives them away? I still can't figure out why it always smells like coffee over here. Even in the winter.
Anthills. Even more today.
There's a scattering of cars about, but you can definitely tell graduation was on Friday.
I guess I can start walking through the campus again, since the residence halls will be pretty much empty. Not much shade around there, but at least I can avoid High Density Numerical Avenue.
A few months ago, I was really loving this hill. Not today. Now it's just making me sweaty and winded.
"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"? Not today. Next. "Take it from the Boys". Better, I'll take it.
Tricycle on the sidewalk. Walking in the street.
The new person in #6 is out here walking their cat. Cat trots up to me and meows. Sweet little kitty. Kitty's name is Leia, but to my everlasting shame, I missed what Leia's human's name is. I'm calling them "S" so I don't have to keep saying "person" all the time. S looks feminine, but I don't want to presume. I had been hoping to meet them somehow. An animal is a real effective ice-breaker. I talk about how I used to have a cat too, but she was afraid of going outside. Whenever we tried it, she would always wriggle free and dart back inside. Leia wants to chase a squirrel, but no, S locks Leia's lead. Such a sweet kitty and S is so friendly. I hope I can meet them again soon.
May 9 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 20
Temperature: 51°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Zero Dark Eighties: Pop Hits for Nighttime
I've decided to just leave all my DOuble CApitals from now on. I spend more time going back and deleting them than I do actually writing.
I think from now on, I should take my morning strolls at 6:45. FOr one thing, more people are out then. For another... um... well... never mind.
Okay, for another, the likelihood is greater that I'll meet the cute butch girl in #2 on her way out the door when I come back.
Going on the other side of Numerical so I can miss the large quantity of now-irrelevant baby stuff sitting by the bins at that house over there. I guess someone's decided they're not having any more children.
Purple flowers at the base of this tree. Anthills all over the place on the pavement.
I don't know why I insist on crossing the road at Clean Shaven Dead President Street and walking up the hill on the university side. I think I convinced myself somehow that it's a more gradual incline, but that's not true. I actually increase uphill time by almost 25% going this way.
THere's actually a bin van emptying Rise Up And Vote. Fortunately, this bin was not necessary for independent votes 3 days ago and our city council, school board, and airport authority stayed blue.
I got rid of all my trousers that had cargo pockets, otherwise I would be using my 3DS's podometre right now. Whenever I walk by the university with my 3DS on, I always think about someone in the residence hall seeing my Mii show up in their plaza and thinking "Tina? Like from the internet?" and they go and look for someone who looks like my simself, but I'm already gone. Self-indulgent, I know.
Rubbish skip outside this residence hall. Graduation is tomorrow, the term carries on for another week, then the underclassmen all have to clear out. That's a long ass time to rent a skip for, though? Must have a different reason for being here.
Thinking about the topless men I saw here 3 days ago playing lacrosse and how unimpressed i was at the time. Whereas, I kept someone waiting at the door for a couple minutes yesterday as I watched a hunky guy with Pavel Chekov style hair walking across the carpark with carnal fascination. I don't have any reason for it.
The 5 white cars all parked in a row is gone. 1 car is grey, another one is red, and there's a black pickup truck.
The skip outside the frat house is full of discarded fabrics and bits of paper.
Proof positive there's no wind: the squeaky yard windmill in front of this house is completely still.
Birds. They land in front of me and then make as though I'm the one inconveniencing them by being here. Like, mate, you landed in front of me. You saw I was here, and you landed here anyway.
So many anthills. So many.
It's a bit early for the school bus, so I'm walking in the road to avoid the Spider Tree & Bug Bush. There's a lot of $1-size liquor bottles in the vicinity of this tree. I guess this is where someone does his drinking.
It never occurred to me before, but this driveway I'm walking up to get back on the path doesn't lead to anything and there's a disembodied letterbox by the kerb. There must have been a house here at one point. Now it's just a field.
This fake parking enforcement sign is misspelt. "Harley-Davison Parking Only". I have yet to see any vehicle park anywhere on this carport, Harley-Davidson or otherwise.
Well, if my intent was to meet #2 going off to her construction job, I'm too early. What do you think? A Linux lesbian and a construction dyke? Anything there?
May 7 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 18
Temperature: 54°F
Condition: Partly cloudy
Wind: none
Listening to: Eighties O'Clock: Pop Hits for Daytime
I'm on my phone right now, so I won't bother with any of the usual formatting until i can gwt to my laptop. (EDIT: I got to my laptop)
First walk I've taken in about a month. i know i said i walked to the polls yesterday, but that felt like a duty rather than something i did because i wanted to. I'm considering today to be the first walk I've taken in a month.
I can't tell if the broken glass is still there under the tree here. The lawn is overgrown with dandelions. I'm assuming it is, because driving over that in a mower can be hazardous. Broken shards of glass flying everywhere and that kind of thing.
Walking around the Spider Tree and Bug Bush in the road. No white phone screen needed because it's daylight.
Halloween house looks boring without decorations.
It's hard writing in this code editor with a mobile phone, did you know that?
There's a squirrel on this retaining wall sitting there looking at me. Probably wondering which way to jump. I'm passing within a metre of him. I'll just pretend I don't see him.
It still smells like coffee by this fence here.
Robins hopping about on the lawn next to Marty's place, looking for worms. It'll probably rain later.
5 white cars all in a row outside the frat house. A Ford, Toyota, Jeep, Honda, and Tesla. Each driven by a whitebread rich boy no doubt. I dropped my phone's pen into the dewy grass while I was making this note. As I stand back up, here comes a giant white pickup truck too.
I'm sweating already, but it feels good to get out again. Out of all the people who Dingle Dumpus wants to scare indoors forever, white masc-presenting people in republican districts are not amongst them.
#5's youngest kid is walking their dog. She's such a friendly doggy, I said aloud, "hi, dogggyyyy!" Well, so much for masc-presenting.
May 6 2025
Days since military dictatorship: 17
Temperature: 79°F
Condition: Partly cloudy
Wind: Almost undetectable from the east
Listening to: Nothing
I had to walk to the polls today. No way around it. I thought of it too late to have a ballot sent to me in the post, so I had to walk there, like always.
I'd been been talking to R all month about the Trump regime and I came to realise that my original fears were not well-grounded in reality. So, i'd been entertaining the idea of taking a walk in the daylight for a couple weeks, but I always seemed to shove the action aside. Well, I had to walk today.
I'm still here.
It was a little warm out, but otherwise it was the perfect day to restore my routine. Except for a rather large contingent of miscellaneous plebs pushing lawnmowers about, I felt no less safe than I had walking there in the early morning darkness. Except now, I'm going to be out in the daylight from now on.
It hasn't changed drastically over the last month. Just greener. Lots of dandelion puffs. I imagine the Spider Tree and Bug Bush will have foliage on them now.
3 girls wearing cute summer outfits laughing amongst themselves. I wish I could dress like that. I need to remember Nicole from last summer, she rocked every fit despite being almost my exact build (her boobs were a little bigger than mine).
2 professors coming out this building here. I'm assuming professors. Might be office workers. Whatever, definitely not students.
A lot of shirtless jocks playing lacrosse or something on the green. I don't know why, but topless men are not appealing to me right now.
At the polls now, deep inside the bowels of a Christian church. What faction isn't relevant. It used to be illegal to hold voting inside a church, but they changed it in 2012. I have to show my ID. How is the voter ID rule supposed to be enforced? I see no police, no state troopers, no armed authority figure anywhere. I guess they decided it's not relevant here. After all, this district is majority white republican. Down at the rec center south of the capitol though? I'm sure the police stand by every booth, carefully scrutinising ID's and strongarming votes.
Poll worker complimented my knit cap. I thanked her. I'm such a courteous white [REDACTED]. I'm everything they expect me to be.
I'll make a proper stroll of it and proceed down to Dead Mustachioed President street. There's a guy across the road who is attempting to drink beer and rake his grass clippings at the same time. I wish him luck, but I do not trust to hope.
Some kind of maintenance van outside Marty's place. I get closer. Locksmith.
Sure are a lot of anthills around here. I don't want to step on one. The ants worked hard on those. Fortunately, they're typically in the seams and the cracks where the dirt is.
Old-ish SUV with a window decal in the typeface, Xtra: "Honk if a kid falls out". Those were common at the turn of the millennium. Didn't think I'd see another one. There's a woman with an '80s Cyndi Lauper style hairdo sitting on the steps here smoking and looking at her phone. I might just think this is her car.
Under ordinary circumstances, I would hate coming out here: the high temperature, the people. But I'm glad for it all today. Not because I thought I was going to get abducted by anyone, but because I could see that I was not the only one who was unconcerned. If Trump wants to scare us indoors, he's not succeeding.
Not around here anyway.
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