Tina's Walking Journal 🌳🚶🏻♀️🏡
Archive
November 2024.
November 29-30 2024
I'm just doing the stairs for fitness rather than walking for fun. At least December starts tomorrow, I can do a proper one of these.
November 28 2024
Temperature: 37°F (wind chill of 28°F)
Condition: Mostly cloudy
Wind: Moderate from the north
Listening to: 1980s Cliches & Onehits (on shuffle)
It's thanksgiving. We usually take our main meal in the evening, since no one in this house likes football all that much. I don't do the huge, elabourate Thanksgiving feast, usually I limit myself to something appropriate, but smaller. THis year, I've got gravy mix, Stove Top stuffing, leftover stir-fry chicken, and I'm making mashed potatoes, which I'll throw into a casserole with a couple of vegetables as Thanksgiving Pie. Instant crowd-pleaser. If you can consider 2 people a crowd. My roommate went home like always, so my mum's coming over. Anyway, I think I've mixed up the Walking Journal and the microblog.
Walking around the neighbourhood during Thanksgiving day is an interesting dichotomy. Most of the houses and flats around here have loads more people in them than usual. Streets that are usually deserted during the week suddenly have no more parking space. However, there's hardly anyone at the university. If I were going the right way, I could just walk right through here and not meet anyone. Oh, sure, there might be a chemistry student sticking around because they're running an experiment and need to be here for a timepoint, and certainly there's the type who came to university primarily to get away from their family who is taking the extra time to play Smash Ultimate, but most of the students here are gone for the holiday. Not that it's a surprise. I mean, I went home for Thanksgiving when I was in school. It's just interesting to have the place to myself.
It's not really cold out here, but it's still enough of a wind chill to blur my vision. In this state, I'm almost totally blind without my glasses; not that my glasses are particularly helpful right now anyway.
Nothing particularly interesting is happening.
(A message from the future!) If I had just delayed my walk for 1 more hour, I could have walked in the snow! Oh well. Next time. I hope there is a next time.
November 27 2024
Temperature: 35°F (wind chill of 28°F)
Condition: Overcast
Wind: Light from north
Listening to: Atari Supremacy: '70s & '80s Synthpop
I went for a stroll 2 days ago, but I forgot to write about it. Nothing interesting happened anyway. I really need to go back to doing this every morning; it's a routine that I'm letting fall apart just like all my other routines (at least the ones I wasn't mandated by law to follow). If I don't get out, A) I'll go insane just sitting around in here all the time and, B) I'll get diabetes, go blind, have my toes fall off, and die before I'm 50. You can sit around during your 20s, but once you turn 30, you've gotta start doing shit.
Anyway, there's quite a lot more Christmas decorations around here. Someone is up on a ladder, decorating that house over there. The good thing about walking every morning, now I'm in good enough condition I can walk over to the other side of Union Army General Avenue and look at the Christmas lights they always put up on British Street.
It always smells like Folger's coffee over here next to this fence. It's the only fence on the whole route that butts up against the pavement; all the others have at least 48 inches of clearance.
There's an old-looking couch sitting on the lawn outside Marty's place. It's old-looking in that it was designed probably in around about 2010 and made to look like the '50s. Midcentury design, as I recall, was extremely in back then; it's most evident in the DLC and user-created stuff for The Sims 3.
With all the leaves off the trees like this, I can see into alleys and the the backs of buildings a lot better now. If I hadn't been focussed on getting around the Spider Tree & Bug Bush (which has neither spiders nor bugs at the present time), I could have looked on through the property to see where I would be walking in 10 minutes' time. But, looking at the abandoned flat from this angle, it looks like it was abandoned only recently, like within the past 3 years. There's all new "Tenant Parking Only" signs bolted to the wall on this side and it even looks like someone was going to paint the exterior wall. I wonder what happened?
Well, another copypaste morning. Nothing interesting is likely to happen at this stage.
November 23 2024
Temperature: 29°F (wind chill of 25°F)
Condition: Mostly clear
Wind: Light from south
Listening to: 1980s Clichés & Onehits (on shuffle)
It's light out today, but that's okay because it's Shabbat. No one's probably gonna be around. People with jobs are sleeping in, university students are just wrapping up their all-night Smash tourney, and... people working on the frat house roof. Okay, well, I'll just walk on the other side of the road, then.
I really wish the kids who live in this house would pick up their toys. I've had to walk in the road every morning for about 3 weeks because a bigwheel and a wagon were sitting in the middle of the pavement! Oh, okay, I'm starting to sound like the person I didn't want to become when I was working for the after-school programme. You know what? I can walk in the road. The kids can keep their stuff wherever the damn hell they want to. Because why? Because they had fun putting that stuff there, and kids need to have fun. I'm not going to be the old biddy at the information desk who shushes you when she makes eye contact.
What? Nothing. Not me side-eying the hell out of this Tesla. You know, Tesla windows are damn near unbreakable, but I wonder how cleanable they are. Like, if I was to spray a Tesla's windscreen with red auto-body paint, how likely would it be that you could get it off without needing to replace the entire car? Oh well, I'm not gonna try it, this is just me talking.
Talking of non-functional tech, the solar-powered security camera on this house here seems to only be a solar panel. I don't see the camera anywhere and the cord that connected them is swaying in the slight breeze we have today.
This paint can looks like it's been sitting here since the millennium. I think it may have been used as an ad-hoc planter box at one point, but the only evidence I have for that is how dreadfully rusty the bottom half is.
If "Heaven is a Place on Earth" is the Lesbian anthem of the '80s, maybe "She Blinded Me with Science" is the Transfem anthem? I should do that, I should make a new playlist based on that idea.
Now that it's light out and I can get a better look at this flat, yes it is definitely 100% vacant. Knowing landlords around here, someone owns it but can't be arsed to sell it to a developer. That's a big property, they could probably fit one of those newfangled gentrified pieces of crap there. Sort of the opposite of a nail house, but with the same functional effect.
November 22 2024
Temperature: 39°F
Condition: Mostly clear
Wind: none
Listening to: #6 marathoning the original Star Wars trilogy
After such a long walk yesterday, I decided to stay in and just do the stairs for exercise. There's 32 stairs on a round trip, you know.
Like I said once, stair runs help me to remember I don't live in a cave on a high mountaintop. There are other people here.
#2's eldest is playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I can't imagine their monthly bills, what with the rent going up as well as all the streaming services, Amazon Prime membership fee, and Nintendo Switch Online. Maybe I should learn soldering just so I can install modchips in the 4 Switches I know exist around here for free. "Have a Nintendo Switch? Cut your NSO bill back to $0! See Tina for more details." I dunno, it's not like I'm made of money.
That seems to be my reason for living these days: teaching people how to stick it to the Man by becoming self-sufficient. I don't know how to reach people outside Neocities though. Ow! I tripped on that stair.
There's the waterbug I escorted out of my sitting room this morning. He doesn't look like he's doing too well. Well, I mean, it's cold in here, isn't it? He'd be much happier in a nice warm laundry room drain someplace, but I don't think I can get him into my bug jar when he's against the skirting board like that. I just hope he doesn't meet the spider I put that general vicinity last week.
November 21 2024
Temperature: 29°F (wind chill of 17°F)
Condition: Mostly clear
Wind: Light from the northwest
Listening to: Ed Edd n Eddy Character Anthems (on shuffle)
There's some new christmas lights in the window of the flat across from the broken security floodlight. It's possible that no one in the flat the light is attached to actually know that it's on the fritz, since there's not a single window on that side of the building. But, then, it gets dark at 17:00 these days. How can you NOT notice it? Like, during the summer, I could understand, since it stayed light out until, like, midnight. Not really. Whatever. I'm walkin' here.
You know what? I don't think there's actually anyone living in this flat over here (different flat, down the road a bit, near the spider tree and bug bush). I've never seen a light on anywhere on the property, no sitting room lamps, no security lights, nothin'. It doesn't look like anyone's parked in this garage for 10 years. I've never seen anyone go in or come out. Huh. A whole-ass apartment building, right down the road from a university, totally empty.
It's cold out, and I forgot my gloves, but I need to be able to see the pavement around here. All type of frost heave and broken cement and random sticks and things shooting out of the cracks. Only one thing for it; turn my phone screen white.
No, no, too dim.
Better. There's a random-ass tree branch lying across the path today. It seems to be stuck in that hedge over there by Marty's place. Sprawling boxwood hedges sure managed to stay popular for about 40 years there; from the '50s all the way through to the early McMansions in the late '90s. No one likes them anymore; not resource-intensive enough to take care of, and we Americans sure love our chemical fertiliser and our hundred-gallons-a-week front lawns.
Scared a rabbit. Sorry, mate. I'll be out of here in a minute.
I think I'll go round the university again, but in the opposite direction this time. It's colder out today than it was the last time I did this, so I think it'll be easier. Maybe.
The college football season must be over, at least for this school. The last time I came this way on a Thursday, they were starting their drills. Today, nothing. Not so much as a security guard.
Usually I avoid Earliest Dead President Street at this time of the morning because it's noisy. Like, it's the height of the morning commute right now, but, I feel the need to be around other humans right now. I'm not real sure why, but seeing all this traffic is making me so happy right now. There's the bus, it's got people aboard it. It makes no sense, but it feels so good to be out here in the cold, just at daybreak, watching all this traffic. Right at this moment, there's nothing bad happening. No war, no conquest, no political intrigue, just people on Earth. I'm going to remember this moment when I get sad, because I could stop time right now, just like Star Trek Insurrection. Chuck Tingle is right: love is real.
Anyway, all this happiness makes me want a bagel. Time to go home.
November 20 2024
Temperature: 31°F (wind chill of 25°F)
Condition: Mostly clear
Wind: Moderate from the northwest
Listening to: 1980s Clichés & Onehits (on shuffle)
Walking around the university in the dark again.
You know, if I wanted to, I could cross Dead State Senator Street and carry on down to Civil War General Avenue. But I don't. Where would I go from there? Nah, it's kinda boring anymore, but I'll just turn here.
Sure is cold around here. I'm starting to regret wearing nothing but my frillies under this sweater. I mean, I was standing out on my deck at home with only my longsleeve teeshirt, but I guess home is rather insulated from the cold wind by that huge tree. Around here, no windbreak.
Oh, that bin van is coming in here. Well, I'll just stop and wait, then. I wish there were some way I could express my appreciation for sanitation workers... but I guess my patience will have to do for right now. I'm too cold to think of anything else.
Yeah. All that square building needs is 2 dim red lights next to each other just above the midpoint and I would never come this way again.
"She Blinded Me With Science" is playing as I'm passing by the science building. Appropriate. Wait, "Weird Science" isn't on this list, is it? Well, THAT needs to change.
I've needed to pee for about 1/3 of a mile at this point. Oh well. I'll get home eventually.
Ever been sweating and cold at the same time? I don't recommend it.
November 19 2024
I went for a stroll and nothing of particular interest happened.
November 18 2024
Sorry, it's raining today and I still can't be arsed to look for my umbrella. Does that sound like an excuse?
November 17 2024
Temperature: 34°F
Condition: Mostly clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Zero Dark Eighties again (on shuffle)
Luna's in a waning gibbous phase right now, but you can see Jupiter just below and the right of her a bit. It's cool how you can see Jupiter's biggest moons with a cheap consumer telescope. You don't need, like, a radio transmitter or anything. I mean, Galileo discovered the Jovian moons in the 16th century, and he didn't even have that. A cheap Thames & Kosmos toy telescope would have been top-of-the-line equipment back then, so Jupiter is easily the best planet to start a childhood astronomy obsession in the 21.2nd century.
2 patios on the flat with the perpetually-broken security floodlight have Christmas decorations up. One has a few strings of lights and an inflatable Grinch (the 1966 design). Another has blinking blue and white lights. Incidentally, these are also the colours of Hanukkah. In its heyday, ShopKo really did a lot of specialised Christmas decorations. For quite a few years, they sold strands of lights that were all 1 colour, so if you had a particular design motif you were trying to create, you didn't need to settle for the traditional multicoloured strands. The last thing I ever bought from ShopKo was a set of Christmas ornaments that spelled out my name, but they all rang up backwards, so we ended up with "ANIT" on the receipt.
There's a square of pavement at the corner here that's a different colour than the rest. Excuse me, but I've watched too many cartoons and played too many videogames—I know where not to step, thank you very much.
Every so often, banks of cirrus clouds drift in front of Luna and I remember why I love coming out here in the dark.
When I was a kid, and even as a teenager, I wouldn't have hesitated to walk along this retaining wall. Except, I've been down here when it's daylight, so I know that several of these blocks aren't stable. That wouldn't have kept me off it, of course.
November 16 2024
Temperature: 50°F
Condition: Cloudy
Wind: Gusty from the south
Listening to: Zero Dark Eighties (on shuffle)
Time to walk all the way around the university, I think. I haven't done that since the day I went to Walgreens.
"Zero Dark Eighties" is actually the 3rd title I've given to this playlist. The first was "Music For Listening To At Night"; back then it only had 12 tracks in it. That was in early '16 I think, because I remember using my iPhone 6 to make the cover image; a stock photo of the full moon over like a lake or something which I added text onto with a dedicated "putting text onto photos" app. The 2nd title was "Eine Kleine Nachtmuzik" ("-muzik" because there was so much Devo on it back then), it had about 20 tracks, and I made the cover in PowerPoint 2010. I do most of my graphic design in PowerPoint 2010. Finally, I renamed it to "Zero Dark Eighties" when I was making the TXT tracklist for the website. I don't really know where that came from, I just thought it sounded playlist-y.
The wind advisory was allowed to expire at midnight, but I can't think why. Someone's whole ass kerbside bin just blew down the road.
It's cloudy, so I can't see Luna regularly, but she's still pretty bright from being full last night. The clouds are altocumulus stratiformis, so it makes it look all spooky whenever she peeks out from behind one of them. Cool :)
It's early on Saturday, so there's quite truly no one about. That's sort of why I came this way.
Certain buildings on the university campus look exceptionally foreboding with the clouds and the moon like they are right now. Like the theatre building. It's basically a 1950s modernist box attached to a larger box. The almost perfectly square shadow is trying to pique my childhood fear of megaliths.
There's a porch on that flat over there decorated with Christmas lights. While I like the LED ones just fine, there's something about the old-style incandescent filament kind that LED hasn't been able to recapture. Unlike Halloween, which is always kind of a toss-up whether people are going to decorate or not, everyone shoots the wad on Christmas, so I'm more confident in my ability to see impressive light displays like this as we get nearer to Christmas week.
(A message from the future!) Why is Linux Mint so very obsessed with creating Timeshift restore points right now? It's done it 4 times over the past hour.
Anyway, I'm not sure exactly why, but this morning in particular, I miss Breaking Bad. Not the show so much as its effect on culture. Someone on Twitter said once that they could always tell when there was a new episode of Breaking Bad scheduled because someone in their lab always dressed up like Walter White. Someone on Tumblr made a coffee shop in Animal Crossing New Leaf that was inspired by that time they used their meth still to make coffee and Walter said, "This is delicious, why the hell are we makin' meth?" I had the same exact cup that Bryan Cranston was drinking from in that scene, and I always said that whenever I made Cameron's Amaretto coffee. Well, the show's over, my cup broke, and Bryan Cranston is just an AI-generated announcing voice now.
It'll add about 3/10 of a mile to my walk, but I'm going to reconnect with Later Dead President street so I can avoid the toys that are strewn across the pedestrian walkway in front of that house on Numerical.
November 15 2024
Temperature: 32°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: 1980s Onehits & Clichés
I've been letting my morning strolls fall by the wayside lately, which is just so very much not a good thing. I need to maintain my routine or I'll go slowly mad. I took a stroll 2 days ago that I forgot to write about.
It seems oddly dark by the residence hall. I guess no one reset the exterior light timers for "Autumnal equinox/Winter solstice" mode. We're fast approaching the end of the fall term, at which point hardly anyone will be around here at all until after Hanukkah.
Luna's about ready to set. She's full tonight! So beautiful. You know, Luna's been reflecting Sol's light back onto Terra since long before we were here, and she'll still be here long after we're gone. That's the kind of constancy I rely on to keep me sane. I remind myself, no matter what happens, I can still see the moon tonight. Even if it's cloudy, I know she's up there.
This is the kind of weather I always look forward to walking in: so cold I can see my breath and it lingers for a second or two. Plus, it's dark out still. The only thing that could make this any better is thick fog. Real "Greater London" hours (I'm sure I would hate being in London for real).
I'd expected to see more Christmas lights at this stage. I only see 2 strands; one on a fence, one in a window (incidentally, of the same flat where Marty was). Everyone but 2 houses totally passed over Halloween, I expect MORE for Christmas.
Incidentally, Thin Blue Line house isn't Thin Blue Line house after all. The black-white-blue American flag is actually flying from the porch of the flat next door. Boy, do I feel stupid.
November 8 2024
Temperature: 51°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: none
Listening to: Rocko's Modern Life Character Anthems
The guy who lives on the corner is out walking his dog. I hope he doesn't notice I'm wearing lipstick. His dog is friendly, he's a French bulldog named Fritz. I believe in letting pets set their own boundaries when it comes to humans touching them, so I let Fritz decide if he wanted me to pet him or not. He doesn't. That's okay.
I think I'm going to pick up a souvenir of my walk this afternoon. This tree is a very nice colour, so I'll just nick one of the leaves off the pavement here. It was on public land and it's one leaf they won't have to blow into the road later. What if I got leaves from all the nice trees I pass? That'd be cool I think.
This is sort of the route I took to the polls 3 days ago. I hope Biden doesn't roll over and let Trump get away with election tampering, but I honestly don't believe anything's going to come of it. After all, we all told him how he should stop funding Israel and we were all ignored. Biden will be remembered as the "sit back and take it" president, the last in the line before King Donald I.
It's a nice fall day, otherwise. It rained last night, so everything's all wet and there's a chill in the air. This is nice. I wish I could live in this moment forever.
Here's another nice leaf. It looks like a maple leaf, but this isn't a maple tree. It's red, just like Canada's maple leaf. I can't get to Canada even if I wanted to.
Obviously, they'd take down Marty, but they got rid of the rest of the display he was part of. It's still fall, you know. No reason to put your bamboo sticks back out.
This tree across from Thin Blue Line was the first one to turn colours, back in September. So, it's not got anymore leaves on. As for picking one up? They're a matted wet mass on the ground here, all brown and decompose-y. I never thought to pick up a leaf when they were yellow, now it's too late.
Fortunately, there's another red tree just down the road a bit. From the leaf shape, I'd say it's the same kind of tree as the first one.
November 7 2024
Temperature: 57°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: 1980s Clichés & Onehits (on shuffle)
I couldn't bring myself to walk yesterday. I ended up doing the stair runs to stay sane at least, because I remember saying once that going up and down the stairs gave me a clarity of thought and inner peace I'd never had before. I remember that day; I felt really good. I had no worries, no cares, all my problems were fixable, and I felt like I used to feel before the depression hit in high school, only without the weird crushes or mixed up feelings of inferiority. I decided that, if ever I needed that kind of peace, it was yesterday.
Today, I decided to alter my route a bit and went to Major Numerically-Named Arterial Avenue to Early Dead President Street and then on Residential Numerical Name back onto Later Dead President, then back home. There was less Trump regalia than I had imagined. I guess everyone else is partying at their brother-in-law's McMansion. Whatever. Not relevant anyway. The only flag I saw directed my attention to a particularly beautiful tree on the other side of Numerical; one half is green and the other half is red. I'd take a picture, but you know how mobile phone cameras are with colour balance. My digital point-and-shoot isn't any better. Oh well, I can just remember it.
It's just after the lunch rush, so people are already back at work, the university students are already back at class, and I basically have the street to myself, just like early in the morning, only not dark. That dog from several months ago noticed me passing by and started jumping on the window again. I think this dog in particular doesn't take well to being left alone. If they didn't bark at passers-by, they'd probably tear up the place in a panic.
The trees certainly are more fall-like than they were at this time last month. Well, I mean, they WOULD be, really, wouldn't they? It's November. Back on 7 October, everything still looked all dry and shrivelly from the withering heat of the summer. Plus, as I recall, the withering heat would come back for an encore nearer to Halloween. Fortunately, our days of temperatures in the 80's Fahrenheit have ended for this year, and the trees are turning their traditional fall colours.
Charlie Brown in his "a little trouble with the scissors" costume continues to stand on that porch, waiting for a rock that will never arrive. Did you know that kids all across the country back in 1966 felt so sorry for Charlie Brown only getting a bag full of rocks on halloween that a lot of them sent him their entire bag of trick-or-treat candy at CBS? I wonder what the studio did with all that candy?
Sure are a lot of squirrels about. Like, they're all over the place. I haven't been able to go down a single street without bothering at least 2 squirrels.
Here's that square of pavement from the '50s with the pawprints in it. Even though I never met you or petted you, little doggy; even though my mum hadn't even been born by the time you died, I still love you. I hope you had a good walk that day and your human gave you a biscuit after washing the cement off your paws. Sorry. That square of pavement always makes me a little misty. It's interesting how the pavement around it has cracks or has been replaced recently, but this square, despite its age, hasn't cracked or become damaged in any way. The only thing that's happened is, the raised edges around the pawprints have been worn away by people walking on it for the past 70 years.
There's actually a light on in the basement of that abandoned house on the corner. I guess they're working on it now. I mean, I saw a skip near there the other week, so plainly some kind of work is being done inside.
November 5 2024
Temperature: 52°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: none
Listening to: nothing
Today, I'm doing what I said I would do—walking to the polls. This is actually the 3rd time I've walked to vote. The first time, in 2016, the car's water pump had gone bust and I was getting it repaired. The 2nd time, in 2020, I was in the area playing Pokémon Go anyway and decided to just walk in and vote. The 3rd time, today, my car won't start for reason of a dead battery or something. I drove to all the midterms and to the 2012 presidential election. Actually, I drove to the 2008 one, too, only so mum could vote (I was 17 at the time). Being away at college in 2010, I didn't vote in the midterms, because I was A, not living in my district and, B, not keen enough to find out what to do because, C, I was bigtime depressed at the time and didn't much care whether I lived or died.
I figure, if I'm to be condemned for being transgender, I don't want to contribute to my own condemnation. No, the polls are not encouraging, but I'm not about to farm out my higher reasoning skills to a scam artist with a bar graph. If Donald Trump is to win by a landslide, let me cast the one vote for Kamala Harris. Kamala might suck. Donald sucks WORSE. I've talked about that.
Oh, hey! That girl's wearing a super cute outfit! It reminds me of Velma from Scooby Doo; rather, something that Velma would wear apart from her traditional orange sweater and red skirt. You know what? I could wear that. With a plaid headband, I could totally pull that off. For future reference, what is it? It's like a turtleneck or something similar, in an autumn colour motif (so, green, orange, cream, and brown), with high-waisted brown trousers. So cute. I could totally wear that.
This would be quite a hike, were it not for the fact I've been walking this exact route every morning for the past 2 months. There's quite a lot of people out here right now; it looks like I'm not the only one walking to the polls. How do I know that's where they're going? Because I was out here at this time last week in order to get to Walgreens and there weren't nearly this many people on the street.
I always thought that was a sorority house. Like, I've called it that a few times at this stage, but I only see men going in and coming out of there. Also, there's a Trump 2024 sign in the window. I wonder if it's close enough to the polling place to be considered a misdemeanour offence. Oh well, it's the only pro-Trump sign I've seen in this city, and only the 2nd one I've seen at all. Not at all like 2016, with lawn after lawn after lawn having a Trump/Pence sign on it. The only reason he won this district in 2020 is because of the gerrymandering.
More people here than I usually encounter, even with the new voter-ID law (thanks again, Scurvy Pete, for throwing Black, Brown, and disenfranchised white voters under the bus like that!). I would hope that everyone here is going to carefully read all the ballot measures and vote only for democrats, but probably this guy with the Proud Boys style nordic beard, c. 2021, is not. Like, some guys you don't even need to look at their ballots to know what they voted for.
Oh, ho-ho-ho-HO! They thought they'd be able to put one past me! Whoever it was wrote the ballot, they tried to pull an Ohio-style bait-and-switch on me with the abortion measures! See, it started out sounding REALLY good, but that was a red flag. In this state, whenever they use gender-neutral language to describe something, you just know they've baked in a way to get around whatever it is the measure is supposed to do. It started out sounding like the measure would amend the state constitution to enshrine protection for people ("people", right) seeking abortions. But... then it goes on to say "unless the attending health professional attests to fetal viability without the need for extraordinary medical requirements". So, they baked a back door into this, because any of the evangelist doctors around here would immediately deny the abortion on the grounds that they certify fetal viability. There's already laws on the books protecting doctors from accusations of malpractise, so the people who drafted this measure actually want to enshrine protection for doctors from patients seeking abortions in the state constitution. Any other schlub is gonna read the first line of this, see "enshrine protections for people seeking abortions in the state constitution" and mark the box next to FOR. But I'm not just any other schlub. They're dealing with curmudgeonly, caustic, and cynical here, and I can spot a phony from a mile away.
Well, I've cast my ballot. It's out of my hands now. Whatever happens, at least I wasn't one of those weirdoes who voted for Jill Stein and wrote in Deez Nuts on all the other positions to score cheap Tumblr points. I didn't let the poll numbers or the Tumblr posts that said "don't you dare vote for KKKamala" with 100k notes sway me into inaction.
November 1 2024
Temperature: 64°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: Moderate from the south
Listening to: Ed Edd n Eddy Character Anthems Playlist (on shuffle)
It's about 13:00 right now. I'm going to Walgreen's today because it's the nearest store I can get to on foot without involving the bus. Since my car broke down, I'm gonna need to be innovative in order to get things now, and Walgreen's is only a couple blocks further west than I normally go on my morning strolls. I'd planned to go at 08:00, so I could be there just after they opened, but I got up late. Fortunately, my "university student ambling to class" disguise is infallible, so I can cut through the campus grounds rather than having to go around like normal.
With it being light out like this, though, I can see that some last-minute Halloween decorations were put up here and there. This house has Charlie Brown in his "a little trouble with the scissors" costume standing on the porch (I presume it's a ball on a stick with a sheet put over it). That porch over there has a skeleton dressed like a pirate sitting in an adirondack-style chair. The girls and their dads are outside taking the decorations down. That's johnny-on-the-spot, I'm not taking my decorations down until Sunday.
I have my 3DS with me and StreetPass is turned on. I wonder if I'll pass someone else doing the same thing? Well, in any case, at least I can use it as a podometre. Not that I have any idea how much ground I cover per-step, but I'll worry about that later.
Walking through the campus, it looks like classes have just gotten out. Looks like I'll need my disguise after all. Not that I ever stop wearing my "student ambling to class" disguise, it's just how I look, even post-transition.
Sure are a lot of squirrels about for how many falcons live around here.
That duplex over there has a giant inflatable Frankenstein's Monster. I sure don't remember seeing that before.
Too bad about Redbox. Walgreens spent a lot of money modifying their stores to support the Redbox machines. This one has purpose-built ramraid bollards and a dedicated security camera. The home video industry is REAL over, but I'm not particularly sorry. Everyone talks about how great Blockbuster was, but like, I was THERE. It WASN'T. They treated their employees like shit, they treated all their customers like potential thieves, their late fees were stupid high and would get exponentially higher the longer it took you to return stuff, and I could swear their collections team had mob connections. I don't know how Redbox worked, but I don't imagine it was any better there, at least internally.
Here we are at Walgreens. I've got my backpack stowed behind the counter and now it's off to find the stuff on my list. What's on my list? Only the essentials of life: toilet paper, milk, and store-brand Cheetos. The people here are all kinda standoffish, but so am I, so it's all good. I'll just keep my earphones in and carry on with the playlist. It's "The Unheard Music" by X playing right at the moment, by the way. Since my playlist is on shuffle, I can't remember what order they played in, but I do remember "The Unheard Music" playing while I was looking for discount halloween candy.
Whenever I have to comparison-shop for paper towels, I always think about SpongeBob and the Tattletale Strangler. "This one says it's the 'Best One Around', this one says 'the Best One in Town'... 'in Town'... 'Around'...?" Unlike SpongeBob, I can't afford to get both (they're exactly the damn same with different labels anyway, anyone with eyes can see that, it's just they're both $2 a roll, so yeah).
Well, the Cheetos wouldn't fit in my backpack, but I'll just tie the bag around my shoulder strap. At this point, I don't feel I can pull off my disguise anymore, so I'll just treat the return trip as a regular walk. I'll go through this carpark to get back onto Dead President Street and just walk back from here.
Well, Marty's gone, unfortunately. The rest of the display that he was part of is still around, because it's not strictly Halloween-related, being germane to autumn in general. Also, Thin Blue Line are taking their display down. Yeah, they look exactly the kind of people who would fly that sort of flag. When I was a kid, I never would have let politics get in the way of my enjoyment of a seasonal decor display, because I didn't understand really anything about politics until 2012. In amongst the other things I'm trying to unlearn, I need to somehow recapture the wonderment I would get out of colourful holiday decorations as a kid. I also need to stop taking knee-jerk offence at Christmas. This is a commercialised Christian theocracy, of course they would prioritise Christmas over other holidays. It's not like I never celebrated Christmas myself. But that's a story for another time. I'm walkin' here.
Why is this guy on the bike making such weird eye contact with me? I'll just give a wave and a rictus grin, he'll be gone soon.
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