Wednesday, February 18, 2009

A lot of walking



UPDATE BELOW
I'm currently enrolled in Karna Peterson's LEARN class - I affectionately call it "fat class" - so I'm doing a lot more walking than I had for several years. I'm up to somewhere between 3 and 5 miles each day, according to the pedometer.

It is fascinating to see walking the things you don't see driving. Fascinating, and, at the same time, a little depressing.

The walking trail is wonderful, so let's start there.

One fascination is the skate park, between Olsson and Saline. It looks almost ready for use, and some of the folks adjacent to it have been out on the weekend giving it a go. Mostly, however, it has been left alone and the rope and pole fence has been observed. There's a sign on the east side of it, along side the trail, but nothing yet printed on the sign. Of course, no word on what when who where why or how. At least not that I've seen in the News Record. I admit, I've missed a few issues of the News Record, so it could have been there.

Another fascination is the old shed behind the MKC station, just to the east of the trail. The corrugated metal roof is blowing up like an old man's toupee in places. The pigeons have a semi-permanent home. As I walk by I see them busily bopping in and out of the holes under the eves.

Of course, the combination of birds and warmer weather reminds me that I have to bird-proof the eves of my garage.

The depressing part of the walk is that there are so many structures in Lindsborg that are dilapidated, run down and otherwise in disrepair. I don't mind a few industrial ruins - in fact I rather like them. But there are getting to be many residential ruins on the edges, under the trees and next to the railroad tracks. That's sad, because it speaks of an aging population that I'm powerless to help reverse.

After all, I'm getting older too.

UPDATE 1

Well, I was wrong. The skatepark is open! And there are rules posted! Think of that.

No one was out skating today. Let's see, it was 35 degrees and there was a twenty mile an hour "breeze" out of the north. Gee.

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