Constitutional

This morning, I went for a walk. I intend to make this a regular Sunday practice, weather permitting. Wandering time is very important to me, and it is one of the first things I do when moving into a new place. My first night in the house, I took Xara out for a walk. [Xara is my roommate Christopher's dog.] We spent a good half hour nosing around the neighborhood and getting to know each other. Likewise today, I went to survey the lay of the land.

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My place is a couple of blocks from arterial streets, and a good four blocks from Benson's Business District, so I rocked the back streets. After strolling around the residential side, I walked up past the library, only to discover they're closed on Fridays and Sundays. I thought about the possibility of volunteering there, how it's a shame libraries aren't better used. Borders or Barnes and Noble are packed on Sundays -- even at seven at night! -- but somehow library funding keeps getting cut. Apparently, people aren't as interested in reading books as buying them. Oh well, some book culture is better than none. And nothing drives culture like capitalism, right? [end rant]

I walked up Northwest Radial Highway, which is a stretch of a boulevardish system of roads [including Creek & Military] that cuts an arc through the middle of Omaha. If midtown was a clock, picture the arc from eleven to three then on to seven. It's a great crosstown route. It was fairly heavy traffic for a Sunday morning. Mostly old folks & families going to or coming from church. I know this because there are several churches along the strip, emptying and filling their parking lots. Otherwise, it's mostly sad rental properties, and a mixed bag of houses. Some inspiring as hell, some depressing.

Further along, I crossed through Benson Park. Bronson, Andrea and I played extreme bocce there a month or so ago. Think bocce meets miniature golf. We played up and down hills, around lagoons, and through glades of trees. The shade is very deceptive. The walk also reminded me that there is a baseball complex back there. Girls from my high school played club softball there. There's also an ice rink. A small herd of anklebiters were just getting off from hockey practice. My dad would have gotten a kick out of them. He loves kids & grew up playing hockey in Michigan.

After climbing out of the park, I beheld a Sonic Drive-Thru. I have a secret weakness for really bad fast food, and craved it instantly. Damn you conveneince!! After actually thiking about it for a second, I decided against it. I walked on. Everything is very developed past that point. It's all parking lot, strip mall and retail. There's a new grocery/drug store that is also a gas station. Past that is a Home Depot, where I looked at water cooler/dispenser, and at an electric garage door opener.

The entire time, I'm carrying this bottle of bleach that I got from Walgreen's. I stopped in to pick up a pocket pack of tissues, and wondered what else I could buy, since I didn't want to break a ten dollar bill for a thirty-nine cent purchase. It felt like it rounded out the transaction, and it was on my list anyway. After I realized that I had walked around five miles carrying this bottle, I felt a little ridiculous. That's just me, though. I don't mind. I'm old fashioned like that. I loves me a wander to the store and back.

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I'm a big fan of walking. I do some of my best writing when I'm not at my desk. I'm also a fan of how it gets your mind moving. Instead of television program schedules, you are on your own time, on natural time. You slow down and look at things. For example, this fantastic red brick house at 6660 Military. [If 666 is the number of the beast, is this his address?] It's a fantastic two-story, L-shaped house with a slate roof and huge chimney which implies a huge fireplace, perhaps two. Four garages built-in lower level. Very posh. I've driven by it at different times my whole life, but only noticed it just today. I considered it for two blocks, coming to & going by it.

I love the way walking routes stir memories. Different neighborhoods remind me of different friends. Also, the different kinds of walks from different periods in my life. Walking dogs. Walking to the drugstore for candy. Walking to school. Walking or biking everywhere when I was younger. How a five-mile two-hour walk is just par for the course when you're twelve and want to go to your friend's house. Of course, this is only possible in an actual neighborhood. I hear they don't even bother with sidewalks in some subdivisions. People are wary of walkers in the suburbs. If you're not in a car, you're probably suspicious, casing the joint.

It's sad that Omaha is such a car town. Bad city planning, and poor public response to public transport. Friends in Seattle tell me about how the city is finally putting in the light rail they so desperately need, but that it's ten-twenty years too late. The project has gotten even more expensive than when initially proposed. I also miss Lincoln, where I was in biking distance of everything. I could find a rack to park every block or so downtown. I miss riding trains in D.C. and Melbourne. Subway stations. It reminds me how I prefer to do other things during a commute than drive. Read a book. Socialize. Wander.

Hopefully I can get back to the point where I work where I live. Less driving, more walking. More running into people I know on the street, or meeting new people. Fostering a sense of neighborhood, of community. Letting my mind wander rather than trying to fend off road rage. And, of course, the exercise. Getting the body moving, and clearing the mind. Yes, I loves me some walking.

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POSTSCRIPT--As of last night, the house is warmed. Thanks to all who came. Regrets to those I couldn't get in touch with. Note to well-wishers, don't bring me flowers. Ever. Apparently both Christopher and I are deathly allergic to the arrangements brought to me by Maggie Pleskac & my mom, respectively. I have spent most of the day trying to think of reasons to get out of the house, running the HEPA filter, and trying to breathe. It's finally working. Thanks to Jill for giving the flowers a new home.

Comments

[kate]

Hey, there is a good article about the whole barnes and noble/ borders/ library issue that you are talking about in this month's magnet.
back page article.
check it out.