Would you like to come on my most often-chosen walking route with me? It's a 5-kilometer route, and before now I didn't think it was very interesting. But today I took my camera along, and what do you know?! Lots of interesting observations to make and perhaps some mini-stories to tell!
We'll start by walking up my driveway to the street. Our downstairs renter, Laura (the pre-veterinary science student) and her brother are out washing their cars in the cool sunshine. That's her brother in the picture. He's a freshman, so his muscle-y looking vehicle is important to him.
Turning right, we walk down our street. The neighbors are fixing up the house on the corner. It used to have this horrible evergreen ground cover along the sidewalk, an inheritance from the elderly couple who built the house and lived there for decades. The new owners have just built a very nice-looking cinder block wall, so we don't have to dodge the scratchy branches anymore. I'm delighted, and curious to see where their home and yard transformation will end up in the long run.
Turning left at the intersection, we start up Larch Street. As you can see, our town doesn't have a whole lot of money for street repairs, so they tar the cracks. We've had a few bad winters since we moved here 8 years ago, so there are a number of squiggly black tar lines on the roads. Looking closely, we can see some cracks they missed.
We head up the street past the house where the trumpeters live (seriously, they both play the trumpet) and past the surly cop's mother's house, and past the place where Doctor D always sets up his advertisement sign to let you know that you can hire him to build a children's playhouse for your back yard.
At the top of the hill, there's the Village Church. Lots of old people go to this church. It's very nice and big inside, probably seating 800-1000 people. I know, the outside kind of fools you, doesn't it? I wouldn't want to be the pastor here, because a lot of retired pastors are sitting in the pews each week. I'd be paranoid that they were critiquing my sermon.
Turning right, we walk east on 12th Street. We refer to the housing development on the left as "The New New Jerusalem." That's because there was a "New Jerusalem" built 40-50 years ago on the next hill over, and a lot of faculty and church workers lived there. But this one was built only in the last 20 years, thus the "new new" designation. You get the picture.
The fence along the wide sidewalk is new, built after the big windstorm nearly 2 years ago. It's made of fake wood, with knotholes in it and all. It runs for almost a whole kilometer along 12th Street, and it's pretty hot if you walk along it in the heat of summer.
This morning it was 27 degrees outside when I got up, and that convinced a lot of leaves to fall. I thought these were really pretty, lying on the sidewalk.
This is the garden of a retired professor from our school. the corn's been harvested, and I think the grapes have been, too. The sad thing is that he was diagnosed with a brain tumor last week. He is in the hospital in Seattle as I write, with bleeding around the tumor. Life is too short, and there are too many dangers all around and lurking inside us.
At about the one-kilometer mark, there is the community center. This is the coolest place! Several churches got together to buy this old nursing home, and they've turned it into a place with all kinds of services to help people who are experiencing hard times in their lives. There's a little clinic, and a thrift shop, and a place where people can get tutoring in English as a Second Language. And the local religious TV station is partially housed here, as well. Oh, and did I mention the clinic? There are medical volunteers who give free basic health care for people with no health insurance. It's amazing, all the volunteers who give time at this place.
Down at the next intersection we get a really nice view of the Blue Mountains. Snow fell on them last week, and I imagine it will do so again midweek when rain is forecast to return in the valley. Today they were looking pretty brown and dry, for the most part.
After turning left on Myra Road, we pass the skate park. It always bemuses me that our university could get sued for any skateboarding accidents on our campus, but the city skate part seems to have some sort of immunity. I wonder how that works? Anyhow, the local skaters seem to enjoy it. And right next to it is a cool BMX dirt track where there are competitions on Saturdays and Sundays when it's good weather.
My friend Millie lives in this assisted living place along Myra Road. I dropped by yesterday to see her on my way back from another appointment. We watched her budgie, Herman, sing and chatter in his cage for a while. Millie says she doesn't like the name "Herman," and asked what I would name the cute little aqua-and-yellow bird. "Jamaica," I said.
Across the road from the assisted living center is this park. The white fence surrounds an old military cemetery from the 1800s.
On my way past the park today I watched this lady throw a ball for her extremely enthusiastic dog to fetch. The dog seemed
way more excited than she did. Watching him, you just had to smile. His ears blew back in the breeze behind him as he raced after his beloved ball. Why is it that when I'm that happy about life, people look at me weird?
Just past the military cemetery is the local fort and museum. It's kind of fun to walk around the covered wagon, the old houses that have been moved to this site, and the teepee that's just outside the view of this photo.
Just past the two-kilometer mark is one of the cemeteries that serves our area. I've always liked American cemeteries. They're so peaceful and green, and the headstones often have interesting things on them to be read, little clues to people's lives.
Just past the cemetery is an open field, bordered by a stream, blackberry bushes, and cattails. Often in the spring and summer you can see red-winged blackbirds perching on these cattails. I didn't see any birds there today; the fluff seems to be busting out of at this time of year.
Just as I passed the cattails today, I saw an ultra-light flying over. I imagine it had taken off from Martin Field, a mile or so away. I don't think I'd want to fly around in one of these things, but I hear that the guys who fly them are crazy about them. One of the guys had a heart problem a long time ago, so his pilot's license was revoked. But he flies one of these, since you don't need a license for that.
At Home Depot it's time to turn left onto C Street. Home Depot is nice to have nearby, but we all felt kind of bad when several locally-owned hardware stores went out of business after this megastore opened.
As we round the corner, we look across the intersection at the mall. A couple of years ago they started to completely remodel the place, reformulating it as several large stores around a parking plaza, instead of as an enclosed mall. I don't know why, in a place that has serious winter, they thought it was preferable to have people walk outdoors from store to store.
But anyhow, the whole project tanked with the economy a year ago, so it's now a half-finished lot full of weeds and partially-built buildings, a depressing sight. And one of the three remaining stores went out of business, leaving only a crowded little Sears and a Shop-Ko in business at this site. Everyone wants to know when some new developer is going to buy it and make a going concern of it. I heard someone ask the port manager about it at a meeting I attended, and he responded, "There's no market here." Well, we are a valley of only 50,000 inhabitants.
As I round the corner onto C Street on my 5-K walks, I always check the temperature at the bank across the road. As you can see, it was a chilly walk today.
At the 3-kilometer mark is the home of some friends of mine. She is battling cancer with courage and dignity. It's been inspiring to see how the local community has clicked in to support this family during the past year. I touch their fence and pray fervently for them every time I walk past their house on this route.
We round another corner, passing the Gospel Outreach offices. This place is in a remodeled commercial laundry building, and is run completely by volunteers. Their mission is quite simple: they collect funds to support missionary work by local Christians in foreign countries. It's a lot more affordable than sending people from here or other wealthy lands, and they are working in their own culture and language. The endeavor has been hugely successful. I admire the dedicated local retirees who volunteer at this office.
So we're just 3/5 of the way around "the loop," as I call my walking route. You might be winded by now, so I'll stop so we can rest. We'll continue our walk tomorrow.
It was about 1989 when the community center connected to my church and church school in southern California hosted a service project to make quilts for AIDS babies. The ladies came around to all our classrooms showing us what the quilts might look like and suggesting that both children and parents could work on the project. They would have a Sunday afternoon session, they said, to teach people who had never quilted before how to make a quilt easily.
