Tina's Walking Journal 🌳🚶🏻♀️🏡
Archive
September 2024.
September 30 2024
Temperature: 59°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Dead Man's Party, Oingo Boingo (1985)
["Just Another Day"] Whooofff! It's a lot warmer out this morning! It's supposed to be 95°F this afternoon. On September 30! 95 farnhites! I can believe it. NWS says the low temperature was 47, but we hit that at 03:40 when I was asleep, so I get to walk in this stifling heat. Yes, 59°F is stifling to me. Better than the 74 it was at this same time last week, I guess, but you'd never know it.
Many tracks pass without anything noteworthy happening...
["No One Lives Forever"] Yes, I can definitely tell it's going to be hot today. I've been dragging along this whole time and now I'm almost out of energy. I should eat something with protein in it when I get home; almonds, maybe?
September 29 2024
Temperature: 47°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: So-Lo, Danny Elfman (actually Oingo Boingo) (1984)
["Gratitude"] Another copypaste morning, except this time, I won't see a single other person. It's Sunday. The Huskers won yesterday. The Christians have church this morning at 08:30 and 11:00, evangelical americanists have church again at 17:00. While I wouldn't say this is a particularly conservative part of town, there's a lot of church-goers around here.
["Cool City"] The purple light inside the house that had the blue porchlight a few days ago has returned. I never bothered to look before, but a couple of the flats around here have exactly the same floorplan, don't they? Yeah. Right down to the painfully 1950s modernist staggered chandelieres in the stairwell. Except the easternmost one's stair lights aren't turned on. I bet the stairs have open risers, even.
["Go Away"] You know what? I don't think this sublet house is occupied. The one across the road from the blue porchlight, I think it's empty. I've been coming down here the better part of a month at this stage and I've never seen any lights on in there, I never see cars parked in front or in the driveway, there's no furniture on the porch or the lawn. Yeah. Empty.
You'd think that, after a game day, there'd be more rubbish stacked up in the skip, but there's hardly anything here. Maybe the girls who live here went somewhere else for the game. I guess, being a sorority, it's possible a few of them are team cheerleaders. It looks like a pamphlet of some kind missed the skip, but I'm not interested enough to see what it's for.
["Sucker for Mystery"] Something like Perry Mason's car is parked in front of the flats over here. This car was probably built the same year those flats with the open risers on the other side of the block were built. Interstate 80 was still being built, and people got about mostly on Highway 6. There's sure some racist-ass shit on highway 6, matey, I tell you what. I go on Google Earth roadtrips on Highway 6 a lot, and the sheer number of places whose names initialise to KK, KKK, or KKKK would astound you and make you wonder what right we have to exist. Jim Crow segregation wasn't just in the Deep South, it was alive and well north of the Mason-Dixon Line. It's still alive and well. All this because I saw a car from the late '50s.
["It Only Makes Me Laugh"] Barring some unforeseen event, I don't think anything else noteworthy will happen at this point. Oh, but I do have to remember to bring the potatoes up from the car. Still not sure why I bought 5 pounds of potatoes, but hopefully I can think of something to do with them.
September 28 2024
Temperature: 56°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Ed Edd n Eddy '70s & '80s Character Anthems Playlist
["Everybody's Broke", Herbie Hancock (Eddy's Anthem)] It's probably gonna be a pretty copypaste morning. Except it looks like there's like 3 or 4 rabbits on the lawn of that house over there. And it smells like the bin van forgot to empty the bins here. Good for the raccoons, I guess.
["Flying North", Thomas Dolby (Double Dee's anthem)] There's a lot more traffic on Numerical than I thought there would be. Oh well, there's still enough of a space here I can cross the road. I wish I knew what this street was called, but I don't. It's the street that the house I was talking about a few days ago was on, the one that burned down and got replaced by a garage. Tool shed. Whatever. It seems even darker down here than usual; I'd better turn the torch on my mobile so I can see.
["Monsters", Blue Öyster Cult (Ed's Anthem)] Rather than go all the way down to Other Dead President Street, I'm just going to go the same way I went a couple days ago. I'll turn back onto Earlier Dead President Street and cross Numerical Name again so I can walk through the normal neighbourhood.
["The Unheard Music", X (Sarah's Anthem)] There's another rabbit. That's 4, possibly 5 rabbits I've seen so far today! Yes, the floodlight is still on the blink. It's too bad that house with the Hocus Pocus display is so conservative. I can't enjoy their decorations now that I know who they voted for. I never thought I'd get to be so old that I would let politics interfere with my ability to enjoy something—I never asked for this. But, here we are. I'd better turn here before I run out of energy.
["Johnny on the Monorail", The Buggles (Jimmy's Anthem)] Unless something happens, I'm not going down the alley today. Hey, look, another rabbit! Maybe it's one of the same ones from before, I don't know, it's dark out still.
September 27 2024
Temperature: 56°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Bob's Burgers '70s & '80s Character Anthems Playlist
["Mr. Blue Sky", Electric Light Orchestra (Bob's Anthem)] First things first, I've got to take out the rubbish. It's smelled like rotting cardboard in my kitchen for far long enough, thank you. The next step after I get done writing my journal has to be emptying the dishwasher. Anyway, coming over here to the skips like this, the direction I'm going to go has been dictated. I used to come this way a lot, when I walked during the afternoons. It looks like there's someone coming toward me from the residence hall across the road and down a bit, but I should be gone long before they show up.
["Be Stiff", Toni Basil (Linda's Anthem)] I hope I'll see more halloween decorations once it ticks over October. Personally, I think you should put up your decorations promptly on September 1, but I didn't even do that this year. I just had too much going on back then. Anyway, the green and orange lights on the porch where the kids helped decorate has been joined by a purple light in the window. It reminds me how the cinema downtown had black-lights that would make my white shoes glow back when I was a kid. They tore that cinema down to build a carpark in 2002, which they tore down to build a high-end office building in 2009, which they tore down to build high-end condos in 2018. I wonder what they're going to build there next? Probably another extension to Abnormally Influential State Football University.
["The World's a Mess", X (Tina's Anthem)] Hey, some more Halloween decorations! This house next door to the sorority house has cascading purple and white lights in the window. You just know that the neighbourhood across Numerical Name that I walk in sometimes is going to be absolutely jumping on Halloween. There's a lot of kids who live down there, and it's not so conservative that they think Halloween is "devil's night" or whatever. Anyway, I would have loved going trick-or-treating down there when I was a kid, walking here and there in my Luigi costume. One year, I got so much sweets I needed a 2nd grocery sack to hold it all!
Back when I was making fonts, I had all the Greek letters and most of the Cyrillic ones memorised. I didn't usually go into Cyrillic too much, because by the time I'd gotten to them, I'd already spent about 5 hours on the ASCII set and the basic Latin extensions. Depending on how keen I was to push my font out the door onto Fontspace, I usually just stopped at that point. I only did the Latin extensions because I'd type in French occasionally, and I needed all the French diacritics. Making fonts is also the reason why I can write a proper ampersand (&).
["Pop Goes the World", Men Without Hats (Gene's Anthem)] Well, it was nice while it lasted, but the sorority house's skip stinks again. Of course, it was a little warmer and more humid this morning, too. It's interesting how all skips tend to equalise out to "damp cardboard box".
The house that had the weird blue light a couple days ago is completely dark today. No lights of any kind either on or inside the house. Come to think of it, there's no car in the driveway either. Maybe they moved out? It happens.
It looks like there's a couple more people walking. I saw them a couple days ago. This time, our paths are pretty much parallelling each other. I think I'll turn here and double back on my route so they don't think I'm following them. This way, I can avoid the school bus and get a longer walk in. Besides, going this way, I can examine the fraternity house's backyard more closely. It turns out that it's actually this tree that's got the lanterns in, not a deck. I can't really see much else for this fence but the tree looks nice anyway. Sort of reminds me of that lit tree object from The Sims 4.
["Pocket Calculator", Kraftwerk (Louise's Anthem)] Great, now there's someone walking their dogs. Time to cross the road again.
["Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", Wham! (Regular Size Rudy's Anthem)] Well, this is sort of not the direction I wanted to go this morning, but I had to adapt it. Anyway, I don't see those other people from before. Either they got here before I did or they went a different way. Well, this was boring, wasn't it? At least I got out, though. Tomorrow's Saturday, so I think I'll cross Numerical and walk through that other neighbourhood for a change.
September 26 2024
Temperature: 47°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Zero Dark Eighties: Music for Listening to At Night
["Break Free", Queen] I'm not going to list years next to song titles anymore. Half of them are wrong, I'm pretty sure, and I don't really want to crack open Wikipedia while I'm writing this. Suffice to say, pretty much all my playlists are from the '80s. Anyway, it's chilly this morning! There's no wind, but I can see my breath for the first time in about 6 months. I'm going to reverse my usual route so I can avoid the Spider Tree and Bug Bush without encountering a school bus. I think there's someone walking toward me though, so I'm actually going to cross the road right here and go on the opposite side of Dead President Street from usual.
["Video Killed the Radio Star", The Buggles] Isn't anyone ever going to fix that light? It can't be easy to live across the road from the fricken Star Trek Red Alert signal. Except, it's gotten a little faster this morning. I think. I'll have to see if it still strobes in time with "Safety Dance" tomorrow.
Hey, there's another rabbit! It might be the same one from last week, I don't know. If it is, he's pretty lucky to have avoided all those cats we have around here. Sorry I scared you, matey, I'll be gone in a couple of seconds here.
As expected, the school bus is not here yet. Not that there'd be a lot of spiders and bugs in this tree at the moment, but I don't want to trip over that frost heave under it.
["Rocket Man", Elton John] Okay, this song is actually from the mid-'70s, isn't it. Well, I don't care. It fits here. I compiled this list on my iBrick 6 all the way back in 2016. I did a lot of driving at night back then and I wanted something I could listen to that would be appropriate for the time without putting me to sleep. Anyway, those girls' high-tops are still sitting on top of the letterbox in front of this flat. They've been here at least since late August.
See? I knew I would get better energy from the cold! I'm already past the sorority house and Elton is still singing. Before I transitioned, when I was still convinced the corporate feudal theocratic complex would block me at every turn, I improvised slightly new lyrics to the chorus of this song. On the debut and the reprise, I would sing, "I'm not the man they think I am at all, oh no, no, no." On the final repeat, I would sing "I'm just the man they think I am at home, oh whoa, whoa, whoa" (italics indicate where I diverged from the song as written). Singing that made me cry once. Anyway, that's a different post
.
["Deep Sleep", Devo] Another advantage to walking this direction is, I can see Luna without having to turn around. She's starting to hide behind Terra again, but she's still pretty this way 🩷
["Things In My Life", Men Without Hats] I sure have a lot of energy this morning! I'm barely sweating, just a little out of breath, and I've been maintaining this pace since I walked out of my flat 15 minutes ago. Of course, I've been doing this circuit since, what, the 28th of August? But, back then, it was hot and humid. This is orders of magnitude better.
["Plain Truth", Devo] There's something to be said for the day after trash day. The skips are all mostly empty, so they don't smell quite as bad. Anyway, here's my front door. Let's see if I can run up the stairs! Phew, nope.
September 25 2024
Temperature: 54°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Listening to: Eighties O'Clock: Pop Hits for the Morning
["Once in a Lifetime", Talking Heads (1982)] I really should make playlist webpages. I spend all this time playing album producer and just to do what? Make another playlist for myself? Anyway, it's substantially drier this morning, and I can feel the energy! I'm walking in tempo to the song, that's how happy I am to be out in another chilly autumn morning! Now I know how Chuck Tingle feels; on days like this, you can tell that love is real. All kinds of love; platonic, romantic, fraternal, material, supernatural, whatever I've forgotten. Everyone loves something, and at this moment, I'm loving myself, my playlist, and this stroll.
The house where the gay dads and their kiddos live has Halloween decorations on it! Nothing fancy, like the house on the other side of Dead State Senator Street where they put up $10.000 of LEDs, but tastefully decorated by children. I say, if you want to know how to celebrate something, ask the kids in your life. The answer is usually "pizza, movies, and Nintendo", and wouldn't you know it? They're right every time.
["Girls Just Want to Have Fun", Cyndi Lauper (1983)] The university campus is always lit up nicely. There aren't many dark corners, especially around the football field. I can hear the football team doing their morning drills. Obviously, this team usually has to play second-fiddle to the Huskers, as do all the other college teams in Nebraska. Still, the field looks well-maintained; clearly someone spending a great deal of money on this field. They were lucky last week, though—the Huskers played on Friday, so more people were paying attention to their game on Saturday.
["Where do the Boys Go", Men Without Hats (1983)] I'm crossing the road here again and going through the poorly-lit neighbourhood over here like a couple days ago. As you might imagine, it's no brighter here today than it was then. When I used to walk around here about 10 years ago, there was a house next to that garage that I liked to try building in The Sims With its hipped roof and slab foundation, it was well-suited to The Sims 1. Sadly, it burned down a few thanksgivings ago when the owner of the house tried to deep-fry a turkey. Respectfully, that sounds like a Sims-type situation, too, doesn't it? But it's gone. They didn't rebuild it, so there's just another garage there now; I don't know who owns it.
["Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go", Wham! (1984)] No more hills... please, no more hills. I know this is a step toward those jogger-thighs I've always wanted but, I would like very much to have the energy to get back home please. I'm going to divide the beat of this song by 2 and walk at that speed. That should be a decent meandering pace. Really, they're not hills. We don't have hills around here (natural ones, anyway). It's more a slight incline. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but right now, 75 BPM. Thank you.
Crossing Numerically Named Street again, the traffic has definitely picked up. Note to self: do not cross Numerical on the weekdays. Fortunately, they can all see me, because I have the torch on my mobile turned on so I could see the sidewalk back there.
["Turning Japanese", The Vapors (1982)] 15 minutes isn't much of a walk. My thighs say "go home", but my heart says "carry on up the next block". My thighs are gonna hate me, but I'm listening to my heart today. Besides, this is the driest morning we've had in a long time and I still have energy, so let's do this.
"Don't look into people's windows, it's not done." Okay, gran, but this isn't someone's sitting room, this is a corridor in a flat. I'm gonna look. It's not like I'm going up to the door and trying to jimmy the lock open, I'm just turning my head a bit as I walk by. Incidentally, the walls are painted a bright "toothpaste" green.
["She Blinded Me with Science", Thomas Dolby (1982)] It must be trash day. This house even has a galvanised bin like The Sims 1-3.
I wonder if the Ring doorbells have some mechanism where they can see the metadata of the music file I'm running. Probably not. That seems a little difficult to do and like it might interfere with other wireless signals. Besides, if they're keen to know, they can just get the data directly from Samsung. Oh, but I'm using VLC for Android. Welp, too bad for Jeffy.
That was good timing—the song ended just as I got back to the front steps at home. Let's turn it off before the next song can play.
September 24 2024
Temperature: 58°F
Condition: Light rain
Wind: none
Listening to: Atari Supremacy:'70s & '80s Synthpop Playlist
["I Feel Love", Donna Summer (1979)] I'm going out a bit earlier today, so I don't hear #1's alarm clock today.
It's the rain what's brought me out here so early. It's supposed to stop by 06:45, so I'd better get out now if I'm to really enjoy the year's first cold rain. I love cold rain, at any time of the day of course, but late nights and early mornings are the best. It gives me hope for the orange and yellow autumn amidst all this unchecked climate change. I had cold pizza for breakfast, so the only thing that could make this morning any better at this stage is walking along the Bison Trail at Pioneers Park. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.
I really haven't changed my route at all from yesterday. I'm not too interested in going a block beyond that because I forgot about that hill. Maybe when it'
s not 98% humidity with a dewpoint of 61° I'll go that way, but not this morning. Drier conditions, please.
["Sweet Dreams", Eurythmics (1984)] It's really hard not to look into people's windows, but I always remember my gran—one night in autumn 1998, we were walking around the block and I saw someone had a Super Mario 64 poster on their sitting-room wall. I pointed it out to gran and without even acknowledging Mario, she said, "Don't look into people's windows, it's not done." So, even though a lot of lights are on and Venetian blinds are open, I keep hearing gran's voice channeled through my own: "It's not done."
["Never Gonna Give You Up", Rick Astley (1986)] This house has a weird blue light on the porch. Like, it looks like the porchlight burned out and they replaced it with a blue LED job. This jogger who's passing me to my left is dressed in Velma Dinkley's colours. Did I ever mention that Velma was my first crush? Apparently, that's a common lesbian experience. Lots of us desire Velma carnally.
["Take On Me", a-ha (1983)] I was examining a photo I took of the house with the Halloween decorations at the corner of Dead President and Numerical, and I'm sorry to report that they have a Thin Blue Line-variant American flag flying from their porch. House cancelled, nothin' to see here.
I swear this school bus is playing mind games with me. Everytime I've come this way, this bus has been here. The first time, it seemed to see me coming and drove away at the perfect pace to block my ability to cross the road. The second time, it cycled its air-brakes while I was crossing the road ahead of it. Today, I thought, "Oh, I'm early—the bus won't be here yet," and walked in the road to avoid the Spider Tree and Bug Bush. But, as soon as I crossed onto the road, BEEP-BEEP MOTHERFUCKER! I have to walk in the grass now, where I know there to be garden spiders, to avoid getting run over.
["Big Mess", Devo (1982)] Okay, let's cross the road and look back to see where the—WHERE THE GOD DAMN HELL IS THE BUS? It just bloody vanished!
["Cool City", Oingo Boingo (1984)] Even though it's raining, I don't think it's rained hard enough to make the crushed limestone alley all spongey, so I'll carry on past the abandoned house and the flat from the '80s and walk back home down the alley. It's starting to rain a little harder now actually. They said it was going to stop by now.
I'm not going to look in that car again this morning. I don't want to be the weird lady who always looks into #18's car every morning. Besides, what do I expect to see, anyway? A carseat? Lawn furniture? A dead guy? There's nothing in that car, walk on by.
Ah, there's #1's alarm clock.
September 23 2024
Temperature: 55°F
Condition: Mostly cloudy
Wind: none
Listening to: 1980s One-Hits & Clichés Playlist
Well, it was the same temperature this morning as yesterday. Oh well, it'll cool off for good in a couple more weeks. It is still September, after all.
This isn't the first time I wore makeup outside the house, but all the times before, I was wearing a mask and my eye makeup wasn't really noticeable. It isn't really noticeable this morning either because it's dark and there isn't anyone about.
#1's alarm clock is going off. I can hear it from the front door. The first time I heard it, a few days ago, I thought it was a smoke detector at first.
Today's music selection: my 1980s One-Hits and Clichés playlist. It starts off with "Mickey", and it gets substantially more overplayed as you carry on down the list. There's a lot here, but I might make a blog post about it at some point.
["Mickey", Toni Basil (1981)] I think what was going on yesterday was it was a little foggy out. That's what made the student flat porchlights pop so much. It wasn't foggy today, it just looks like the place I've passed now for a hundred years.
["Whip It", Devo (1980)] Walking like this every morning has done so much for my stamina, I might be able to get back onto my bike this year! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to jailbreak a Wii U this year like I resolved to on GNYD. But, hey, you win some, you lose some.
The point of going this direction every morning (pretty much) is I'm trying to get all the way to Numerical Main Street so I can feasibly walk to the community art centre. It's a little too late for the farm stand, unfortunately, but there's always next year. Today, I think I can make it all the way to... hmm... 2 blocks away. I add another block to my route every morning.
["Turning Japanese", The Vapors (1982)] This university seems to have only one fraternity. Oh, right—the other one lost its charter because of a hazing gone awry or something. In contrast, there are 2 sororities. I wonder what people see in Greek houses, anyway? It's not like the other student houses around here don't party, if that's what you're worried about. Like, the house on the corner, the first party of the new fall semester always has a huge turnout. Like, I haven't seen that many people since new-student orientation night.
["Safety Dance", Men Without Hats (1981)] It seems I was wrong: the Hocus Pocus display doesn't make sound. It's the green flashing skeleton next to them that makes the sound. And is anyone ever going to fix that floodlight? Incidentally, the floodlight was strobing in perfect time with "Safety Dance".
["Africa", Toto (1983)] Someone's coming down the alley toward me. I have to do the Onslow grimace
to hide my lipstick.
["Holy Diver", Dio (1983)] Huh. #1's alarm clock is still going off. Maybe she hit snooze; it's really not my business.
September 22 2024
Temperature: 55°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: light from the north
I always get better stamina from the cold. I wouldn't classify this as "cold" per se, but it's sure a hell of a lot better than yesterday at this same time! When it's really cold (like <40°F), i'm sure I'll be willing to walk all the way down to the library and back without stopping! Maybe.
I guess, with the lack of streetlights, it just makes the lights on the houses brighter. I'm not sure what's different about today, but the student flat I pass every morning looks beautiful, all lit up like this.
I'm going a different way this morning than I've ever been before. Originally, I wanted to walk around the entire university campus, but I decided I'd probably get winded just walking up that slight incline along Numerical Road. I'm already 1/3 of the way there, but there's a crossroad here, so I'll walk into this neighbourhood, then. And I thought MY neighbourhood was poorly-lit! Whatever happened to all those streetlights they used to have at the turn of the millennium? Oh well.
This house appears to have some kind of pride flag out front. It's catching a little of the mandatory American flag light, I think it's the gay men's flag? I don't know, I don't recognise the colours. It looks like they've got kids, anyway—there's a scooter and a helmet's been abandoned on the lawn here.
Talking of flags, why is it that every house with a Huskers flag down this road has a doorbell camera? Like clockwork! Husker flag? Doorbell camera. Husker flag, doorbell camera. I accused season pass holders of being white supremacist bourgeoisie once, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
I know I shouldn't look into people's houses, but this one house is completely dark except for a light in the basement. I'm not sure why, but it feels warm right here; sort of how a sweater and a cup of tea feel on a cold, rainy afternoon.
I discovered where that Tesla parks. It's about 2 blocks up from the house with the weird bus and the ham radio antenna. I guess it's possible they won that in a contest. Frankly, if I won a Tesla, I'd trade it in for a better car. All this humidity we've had lately, I wonder if the undercarriage is rusty yet?
Tomorrow morning is supposed to be even colder, and it's supposed to be raining. That might deter some people, but not me! Cold rain is my jam, that's why I signed up for this planet.
September 21 2024
Temperature: 76°F
Condition: Mostly cloudy
Wind: none
Quite a change in temperature from where we were yesterday. Did you know? It went from a low of 55 farnhites to a high of 95 yesterday? That's a pleasant early fall morning to a hot summer afternoon. Oh well, that was the result of a stationary front being cleared out by a high pressure system. It'll get that hot today, too; but then it'll fall off quite sharply. What is this, Weather on the 8s? Moving on!
I saw the moon again, albeit briefly. Like I said, mostly cloudy. Still, I knew she was there though. We're still cool.
The frat house has some festive-looking lanterns strung up around their back patio. I imagine that building's seen some shit go down, even though it seems to be mostly married dudes in their late 20s staying there at the moment. I seem to recall something happening there that required the police and the news back in the day before I shifted flats. Seems quieter there now.
If I didn't know better, I'd say it looks pretty stormy to the northwest. But, it's not. It just looks that way because of the sun not being up yet.
It's interesting being out here so early on a Saturday. All the streetlights are on, the signs on the frat and sorority are illuminated, no cars, no people... just me, the crickets and toads, and the Halloween decorations I mentioned yesterday.
You know, now that I'm looking at it, it's definitely raining due north of here. And, hey, look at that! There's actually a rabbit in the alley! There used to be a rabbit who would chill in a specific spot on the lawn next to my assigned parking space about 5 years ago, but with all the cats, foxes, and hawks around here, I stopped seeing him pretty soon.
There's a cricket on the ground floor landing inside my flat that I noticed while I was getting the post. I would have tried to get him back outside if I could've found him.
September 20 2024
Temperature: 57°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Summer is almost over! I can smell it! I know that's a strange skill to have, but you learn some stuff about how to read the weather without technology when you live in Bumfuck Nowhere. And this? This is the way autumn smells. Sort of the weighted average of rusty metal, burning wood, and rotting gourds. Incidentally, this is also how trees smell. You can laugh if you like, but I'm totally serious.
The sun hasn't quite come up yet, I can still see the moon. I love the moon, she's my homegirl. I don't get to see her as often as I'd like to, though.
Since the sun is still trying to rise, you can see into certain windows. I try not to look, because it's impolite... but I just happened to glance at a plant in someone's basement, and that drew me to the most 1990s-looking (I assume) man-cave in a basement that I've ever seen. Back in the '90s, man-caves were called "dens" and they looked like the '70s.
Also, since it's still mostly dark, the Halloween decorations on the house at the corner of Dead President and Numerical Name are lit up. Their inflatable Hocus Pocus display even plays sound. Th... there's an inflatable Hocus Pocus decoration? Where... where can you get one? I'd like to know this for science.
It's a little inconvenient, this school bus stopping here, because this is exactly where the spider tree and bug bush is. Except, today, I can't walk in the road to get around it, there's a school bus here.
The driveway floodlight on that flat a block from mine is flashing like it's a strobe light on Star Trek. I'm assuming that's just a malfunction and not a silent alarm.
It looks like the school bus stopped at those duplexes near the main street. I would notice this, for reasons I don't care to disclose.
September 17 2024
I have to wait in for the pharmacy delivery guy to show up. He could come in an hour or at the end of the day, I just don't know, and I don't want to miss him again. So, unless he shows up soon, there's no entry for today.
September 16 2024
Temperature: 89°F
Condition: Mostly cloudy, becoming partly cloudy
Wind: Light from the south
After totally spacing my morning stroll yesterday and decorating for Halloween instead, I finally got back to it today. Admittedly, at 14:35, but at least I got to it.
Those dogs I mentioned a few weeks ago, I finally saw them this afternoon. This time, they were barking at me and jumping and tail-wagging in a fenced-in backyard. People always complain about "vicious dogs", if they get barked at by anything larger than a pekingese, but like... this was a waist-height fence that a medium-size dog could have jumped over with no problems, but they weren't doing that. Plus, I can read dog body-language. They were bored as all fuck, wasting away in that backyard while their humans were at work, and they desperately wanted to play with someone. Dog body-language is really not all that hard to understand. Anyway, I just said "good puppies" and carried on walking. I hope they can amuse themselves for the next 4 hours.
I really don't care about doorbell cameras anymore. I can see now why people don't think they're harmful. They just get used to them being there to the point they blend in with the aluminium siding and you don't notice them anymore. I spent at least 15 seconds looking directly at a Ring across Numerically-Named Street. I just hope their short range isn't being exaggerated.
There's an unusually brightly-coloured 20XY Jeep Something parked at the student apartments on the corner of Dead President Street and Numerically-Named Road. It's the colour that Crayola used to call "Forest Green" in their 12-pack of art markers back in the late '90s. Sort of greener than process cyan, but bluer than seafoam. Sort of like this colour here.
I was listening to Oh, No! It's Devo. "Out of Sync" always reminds me of my mum's Christian fundamentalist friend from the turn of the millennium. She wasn't always a fundamentalist... she kind of flanderised herself in that way over the course of the next 12 years until we couldn't recognise her anymore. "She's out of synch and totally committed to living in a Dark Age."
I hate humidity. It's not the heat what makes me pour sweat when I get home, it's the humidity. That's why I'll even sweat when it's 61°F outside. I used to say on my radio programme, "It's humid enough that, if you were to go outside right now, your clothes would stick to you like some kind of indelible adhesive, and you'd never be able to get them off again." I don't want to talk about it. Those weren't the best 2 years of my life. In fact, they sucked. Let's forget I brought that up.
I'm actually writing this update in Xed on Linux Mint. I hope Neocities gets over their technical issues soon. And I also hope that what I think are technical issues isn't actually the website being unrecognisably overhauled into something that uses generative AI. That's a weird thing to worry about, but it's a very real possibility for the 2020s.
September 12-13 2024
I wasn't feeling well enough to walk yesterday and today. I'm not like terminal or anything, it's just a stomach thing. I sure wish the fall-like temperatures would hurry up and get here so don't have to pour sweat everyday. Anyway, I'm going to the store tomorrow, so it's another day until I can take a morning stroll. Sorry.
September 11 2024
Temperature: 94°F
Condition: Hazy
Wind: none
We were under an air quality warning today for some reason, so I didn't go outside to walk. Instead, just for the exercise, I went up and down the stairs a whole buncha times. That's the only good thing about living on the top floor, the building comes with a built-in Stairmaster.
I could hear #2's new baby. Seeing Mrs. #2 waddling pregnantly around the carpark is one of the reasons my baby-fever flared up again. I'm hoping the progesterone will tone that down.
There sure are a lot of crickets on the ground-floor landing. I can't imagine the random bug jumpscares the people who live in the garden-level flats get on a regular basis.
Despite being a weekday, the laundry machines were in use everytime I passed by.
September 10 2024
Temperature: 89°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: Light from the south
Getting pretty tired of this constant 95-85 degree roller coaster. It's not enough to do anything but make you feel like you're riding on a bumpy road. Maybe I've just been thinking of the uncomfortable road trips I used to take when I was in preschool with my mum, gran, great aunt, and some random other extended family member in my mum's Dodge Omni. I'm kinda surprised they never reissued the Omni as a crossover electric car. Oh well.
I walked past the bus stop I stood at on Friday to go downtown for my bus pass. It's like I thought; I spent $8 to travel downtown and back 1.5 times. I paid twice what I would have paid in regular fares. Oh well. There was always the possibility I'd get selected for that jury, at which point I'd have been hurting for bus money without a pass. I hope I never have to ride the bus again.
I didn't walk very far, just around the block. School got out by the time I was able to get 'round to walking, and large groups of teenagers still give me the heebie-jeebies as though I were still in high school myself.
All the branches from that thunderstorm a couple months ago have been cleared away at this point, but now the thing to leave blocking the sidewalk is your big-ass pickup truck. I'm pretty sure that if I were to kick a dent into the side of a pickup that's parked across the sidewalk, the police would side with me. If not the police, then the civil court judge. If you can't be arsed to park your status symbol somewhere smart, don't be surprised when someone with a battery-powered circular saw decides to carve your truck in half like split lumber.
September 9 2024
Temperature: 91°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: Light from the south
Since my jury duty started (and ended) today, I walked around the Justice Department building during the lunch break.
I went out the breezeway and across the smoking area at the back of the building. No one was smoking, but I was able to see the Grain Elevator Worth Negative Money. I don't know why, but I love that building. It's an emblem of my childhood, plus it's driving the property value of the general vicinity down so no one can gentrify it. The rail track leading up to the chute hasn't been connected to anything as long as I've been alive. Since it would take more money to tear the place down than the land is worth, no one wants to take responsibility for it. So, it's gonna stand there for probably the next 50 years.
When I looked straight up, I could see large birds coasting on thermal inversions created by the surface convection from all the pavement and gravel around there. If there'd been any atmospheric instability today, we would have seen a very intense thunderstorm, possibly adequate to destroy the GEWNM.
It was hard to appreciate my walk. I'd been sitting in the public lounge for 4 hours, surrounded by people who were functional human beings. I'm not going to talk about that too much; suffice to say, I was really hormonal today.
The other thing preventing me enjoying myself was, I was around so many police. Mostly sheriff deputies, but a lot of city police as well. If you follow me on tumblr, you know my love for our boys in blue is lower than the GEWNM's property value.
I was trying to work up the courage to say 2 words to a really cute girl, so I forgot to put my plague mask on until after I'd already entered the building, put my stuff through the security check, and gotten on the lift. I hope I didn't get anything. I'll know in about a week.
I also walked two blocks to the bus stop. I was talking to my mum on the phone at the time, so I wasn't paying a lot of attention to things going on, beyond just normal "pedestrian crossing a 4-lane intersection" things. There sure are a lot of high-density roads in this town for how small it is.
I sincerely hope I never have to go downtown again.
September 8 2024
Temperature: 61°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: Light from the south
I didn't go quite as far today as I went on Thursday. Still, I got outside, so it's an improvement over yesterday.
There were a lot of squirrels about, chattering at things. Probably at least 2 of them were chattering at me; maybe they thought I was responsible for the removal of the tree in the alley that they've been using to get onto the roof.
The house on the corner of Dead President Street and Numerically-Named Road has been decorated for Halloween. If depression weren't kicking my ass, I'd have my decorations out by now, too. Christmas gets 6 months, Halloween only gets 2 weeks.
Apart from those 2 exceptions, this morning was a copypaste of Thursday.
September 7 2024
Sorry, depression hit me REALLY hard today and I didn't walk anywhere. Suffice to say, I am NOT looking forward to going back downtown on Monday.
September 6 2024
Temperature: 71°F
Condition: Overcast
Wind: Light from the north
I decided to delay my morning walk until the afternoon because I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking downtown today.
Downtown is so different now, it's like walking into a foreign country. I barely recognised the bus stop I used when I was working. I thought, getting onto the bus this afternoon, "It can't be that different, it was only 4 years ago. Well, it turns out 4 years is a long time. Everything I knew from 2020 is gone; the coffeeshop I wrote the song about is gone, the weird abandoned church on the university campus is gone, the building my office was in got torn down to make space for luxury condos—as though this city is hurting for high-end housing.
I had to walk to the bus terminal to get a reduced rate bus pass. It's one of 3 convenient locations where you can purchase one: the others being at a YMCA on the southernmost edge of town and the grocery store in the new suburban desert at the northernmost edge of town. Or, the inner-city rec centre where the buses conveniently do not travel. I'm not sure how they managed this, but it seemed like I had to walk uphill both ways to get there.
I know where the bus terminal is, I'm quite familiar with that part of town. The after-school programme I worked for before my office job had their admin office across the road to the west. Today was especially disappointing because, whenever I used to go to that part of town, it was a simple matter to get to Pioneers Park from there, so I always would. I'm not particularly religious, but I swear that God lives at the far end of the Verley Trail. Next month it will be 4 years since I was there last. I hope it hasn't changed.
I spent 74 minutes either aboard a bus or waiting for one to arrive, just to complete a 2-minute long errand. I wish I could get my car fixed, but I just can't. All told, I only walked about a half-mile and went up 2 staircases. Scarcely a walk at all, some might say.
The amount of influence the university holds in this state is outrageous. I spoke of college football a few days ago; it's their team. They make more money in merchandising and broadcast royalties than Walmart does in selling chips and beer to the people who watch the games. Incidentally, the university also happens to be the single largest employer in this state; the state government comes in second, Walmart doesn't even come in until 4th.
I guess I was hoping for an adventure, doing something unusual that was outside my comfort zone. Instead, I ended up getting really sad about stuff. I'll go back to my regularly-scheduled morning strolls tomorrow.
September 5 2024
Sorry, no entry for today. I have some weird stomach thing going on and decided I wasn't feeling good enough to go for a walk.
September 4 2024
Temperature: 64°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
Another copypaste morning. Nothing particularly distinct from yesterday except that it somehow managed to be more humid this morning.
All the office chairs that were scattered about various front gardens are gone. Now the thing to leave outside is broken bikes.
I don't think the corporate feudal state wants to admit that 18- and 19-year-olds aren't going to college as much anymore. Moreover, the National Lampoon's Animal House archetype of college Greek houses is becoming obsolete as a result. I saw several cars parked in the university's fraternity lot that had stick figure families on their back windscreens. Plus, my own roommate (not the Tetris one, the Chanology one) was married and had 2 kids before I got to him. And that was in 2011!
I decided not to wait for the siren test this morning, because I felt like, if I waited to go out, I wouldn't. That's just me. Every morning for the past week, I've gotten out of bed and tried to find some justification for not walking this morning. Well, I can't not go out. A, I'll go insane if I stay inside; B, I'll get diabetes or something from all this sitting around. Now that I can't go to the park anymore, the neighbourhood's poorly-maintained pedestrian sidewalk will just have to do.
Something is finally happening with the abandoned house that shares my flat's property line to the south. I imagine my flat and the one next door was built on that house's farm because it looks like it's about 50 years older than this place. I know this because that's just what happens around here; there's one of those "suburban desert"-style tract housing neighbourhoods that got built a block south of the new Walmart that couldn't proceed until the owner of the farmhouse either sold the property or died. I don't know which happened, but something did. Oh well. "Something as large as corporate feudalism does not stop for something as small as man, Mr. Neelix." Maybe we needed to be like those cartoons and hold the biggest talent show this town has ever seen? Well, it seems I'm done talking about my morning stroll, anyway.
September 3 2024
Temperature: 64°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
The next time I think of walking along the main road, please somebody hit me with something. It's noisy and hectic up there, there's huge great gaps in the pavement, random weeds shooting out of the cracks in the pavement that's there, and somehow it still manages to be a bike thoroughfare. Miss me with that shit.
They got rid of those sticks in the alley yesterday, but replaced the sticks with bits of a tree that they cut down nearby. For some reason, there were great chunks of honeycomb next to the chopped up bits of wood. I guess bees were living in that tree? Well, great; there's another hive destroyed by human expansion projects.
Once you get over that hill on Dead President Street, it's really quite a simple matter getting to the farm stand on Numerically-Named Road. You just sort of let gravity pull you there. Of course, since it's at the base of an incline, that means uphill all the way home which kinda sucks.
I think I'll delay my morning stroll until 10:15 tomorrow so I can be outside when they test the tornado sirens. I'm a bit of a civil-defence nerd. We're in range of a pair of 2001-130's and a 3T22. There's also a Thunderbolt 1003 nearby, but you can't usually hear it over the 3T22. It's about 3 miles away so you really have to listen for it. There used to be a 1003 on top of the high school, but they threw it away in 2016 and replaced it with a 2001-130.
I walked through no less than 3 spider wires this morning.
September 2 2024
Temperature: 54°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: Light, variable
I passed the flat I used as inspiration for Susan of the Seventies. There are a lot of flats of similar age in that area, including one that looks like it was built at the same time as the university.
There's this one square of pavement that looks like it was put down in the late '50s that has dog pawprints in it. Not very big prints, just medium-size. This little doggy has been dead for decades, they're a fading memory even with their owner, maybe even their owner died, and the only evidence they ever existed is this random square of pavement in Middle America that they accidentally walked over before it set. The neighbourhood was new, the university's science building was new, their owner was probably a former student of that university. Now, the neighbourhood is ramshackle, some of the houses got torn down to expand the parking capacity, and even the new science building got torn down when a newer one was built in the 21.1st century. But in spite of it all, we can still see that one day in 1958, a dog went for walkies. Kinda makes me want to cry a little.
I wish people would take better care of their shrubs and trees so I don't have to keep walking in the street to avoid ticks and spiders. The toys I have to step over are okay, though—those just mean that kids were playing here. Slipshod garden maintenance, though? That's a purely adult thing. Put down the beer and pick up your pruning shears once, huh?
Talking of, they're finally clearing away the sticks from the shrub they cut down in the alley.
September 1 2024
Temperature: 67°F
Condition: Clear
Wind: none
The flat next door to the one with the "Rise Up and Vote" rubbish skip has a couple of wooden dining room chairs sitting out on the front steps, one of them is the same as the ones I have. I guess the Tell City Chair Company made a lot of these.
I saw the jeep with the Captain America shield spare-tyre cover. I find it interesting how Captain America was designed specifically to avoid violating the Flag Code, insofar as you won't find the actual American flag anywhere on his person. It used to be illegal to wear images of the flag as clothing for whatever reason I'm sure made sense to the weird evangelicals who made that change to the constitution. Trump did away with that so he could sell campaign merch. It's not like anyone was enforcing that law anyway. But, hey, who cares about politics? I'm walkin' here.
Sure are a lot of squirrels about today. And a Mini Cooper coming out of the residence hall carpark whose driver clearly doesn't see me.
The last time I walked on this side of the street, it was because I was playing Pokémon Go and I was trying to reach the Gym radius as soon as possible. I took that Gym over and Team Instinct held it for almost 2 days. My proudest moment playing that game was the day when some Valor was trying to take the gym from us and didn't realise that I was watching him do it from several blocks away, armed with 12 Gold Razz Berries. When the battle was over and he was regrouping, I used my berries to fully revitalise every Pokémon in the gym. I became exactly the kind of player I hated, and it felt really good >:D
An SUV was parked in the driveway of the house with the dog who likes to bark at me on the weekdays. It had a decal of Statler & Waldorf doing "Kilroy Was Here" on the back windscreen.
I went back into the house through the back door today. It looks like #8 is making progress clearing the bags of old baby-clothes off their deck. At this time next week, they should be able to reach their expensive-looking pellet grill. Also, I noticed a garden spider had a very nice-looking web built between my air conditioning unit and the slab foundation. I hope she catches lots of bugs there.
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