Ok, so owning a car, I don’t necessarily do as much walking to destinations as I ought. Force of habit from growing up in suburbia. Last week, Crayola (my ’91 Geo Prizm) decided to protest and have a bout of car problems. She is all fixed, but I am temporarily still separated from her since I had to have her towed to my hometown which is about an hour plus west of Worcester. I have been without wheels now for about a week and have done pretty well making do with the few errands I have had to do as well of places I needed to go.

In actuality, it gave me the opportunity to walk to my evening class at WPI today. I started out around 4 and made it over to my lecture hall in about 45 minutes…not bad for a former runner. My walk passed me by the lovely Elm Park, which for those who have not been through Worcester, it is about the nicest place in the city, in my opinion. I absolutely love the high arching bridges over the series of small ponds. Now that we are in the smack dab of winter, they are solid with ice and I was pleasantly surprised to see a handful of people out skating. There were a few men here and there on hockey skates, smacking pucks around. A pair of girls were just messing about on a smaller secluded pond in the corner of the park. It really made me just beam as I walked by seeing people actually outside enjoying the outdoors. Up until that point, I had probably walked about half the way without running into many people on the sidewalks at all; a mailman here and there. As my violin teacher Peter would say, it isn’t even the weather, just that we are such a car society that no one ever walks anymore. Come to think of it, the last time I was walking through a city was in Palestine, and man the streets were busy with cars yet the sidewalks were still packed with people, most of the traffic actually being taxis or hired minivans.

Enjoying my walk so much, and realizing that I have a safe way of returning to campus at night when my class lets out, I think I shall resolve to walk for the rest of the semester ensuring I have at least one day of exercise a week. I may actually walk out to Elm Park before next Monday just to witness Park Spirit day this weekend, giving me the chance to finish up a roll of film on my mom’s old point and shoot camera. So, I guess Crayola’s sickness actually had a better result than expected, she’ll actually get more of a break during the week!

Well, time to return to some soft jazz, the warm glow of my new CFL, and my new GIS software! Ooo, I know how to live it up at night here in Wootown.

Go Sharks :)