Friday 2/29

Location: Chester
Weather: Sunny, upper 30s
Music: WMMR



First things first: I was a little worried about Foobruary coming to a quiet end, but thankfully "The Pretender" was in full swing as I started the car.

The trip down PA-320 to Chester involves a couple of funky lane decisions. In one spot, you have to stay to the right to avoid getting behind left-turning traffic but in another you have to stay left to avoid a right-turn-only lane. Actually, at least one of those must be wrong since I definitely had to floor it coming out of a red light to avoid ending up on 95 south. Fortunately, the Escort actually dwarfed the car in other lane.

I'm also still not sure how 320 eventually makes it down to US-13, since I mistakenly stayed on it by making a left turn into the heart of Widener's campus instead of going two more blocks straight ahead to the correct cross street...damn youngun's are so arrogant, crossing the street like they do...encountered a bunch of confusing one-way signs while trying to drive around the block, but fortunately nobody else was on the road.

I wonder if one of the upsides of Chester's population decline is that there are always plenty of places to park. I've been to residential areas twice now and never had any problem.

Spent about an hour at Tina Johnson's banging my head against the Dreamweaver/FTP/whatever wall, trying to update the chestercoop.com website but only getting blank pages. She spent most of that time on the phone with Verizon first getting her $76 phone bill cut down and then unsuccessfully trying to figure out how she got billed for that in the first place. I can't decide if I'd rather get screwed over unknowing or have to deal with the problem of talking myself into being a jerk to come customer service representative.

After giving up, I said a little bit about yesterday's meeting with Ann, which brought an a long rant about the Common Market, people who worry exclusively about farmers, problems with distribution center location, and the like. I guess it's easy to be a "good listener" when the talker just wants to spout off for a while, but I still a little relieved to finally be out the door. The more you hear and learn, the more obligated you are to find answers, but at the same time every sentence made the possibility of working within "the system" less and less likely.

The trip home was uneventful. I left the car on College Ave, but not before confusing the car behind me, which stopped instead of going around while I parallel parked. It's good to know that I'm not the only the one who does stuff like that.

Thursday 2/28

Location: Philadelphia
Weather: 20s, windy
Music: NPR



The four of us in the capstone met in Pearson at 8:30 and headed towards the meetinghouse to retrieve Mark's car. I thought he was joking when he pointed to a black PT Cruiser and said "the hearse is mine", but then the lights flashed and in we got. I guess having a family kind of necessitates having a family car, and it's certainly not a minivan.

We tore onto 320 towards the pike and I grinned at the idea of our "ordained minister and generally saintly human" being a crazy driver. Not much traffic up to the ramp to the Blue Route, and the interstates were moving surprisingly well. Congested, certainly, but we were still at about the speed limit through the 95 merge and onto I-76. Things started to get a little hairy there, so we got off a little early and probably made better time than we otherwise would have despite sitting through several long red lights. Thumbs up for bushwhacking.

Parking was no problem and I even got to use that big pile of nickels and dimes. Now I'll keep collecting them in my wallet for at least another five years...we went a couple of blocks in the wrong direction before getting squared away, and it was freaking cold. Somehow it's harder to deal with high winds in a city, when I know they're being partially caused by the surrounding tall buildings, than when it's 100% all-natural. We passed a bunch of normal-looking Penn students and eventually made it to the coffee shop next to the White Dog cafe.

Ann Karlen was waiting for us with laptop and cell phone already engaged. We spent some ES department funds (I got a bottle of Newman's Own sparkling raspberry kiwi juice--who knew?) with the help of a raspy voiced young woman with bangs, moved some chairs around, and spent about 90 minutes talking about the Chester co-op. Ann was really really impressive--smart, realistic, and direct without being condescending. Someone who definitely gets things done, which is good when you're working with a bunch of distracted college students. I was struck by how much I really am going to miss being in situations where meeting people like this is commonplace. Better late than never.

We were a little pressed for time on the return trip, but were fine after Mark burned tires while making a screeching u-turn just fast enough to avoid a long line of traffic. I was in never-never-land and thus had to hold on for dear life and said "Jesus Christ!" or something similar...later, we found out that he had learned to drive in Los Angeles. What a character.

This was my first time on the Schuykill (I-76)--lots of billboards and other urban interstate stuff. Being a Boston sports fan is great until you see some of the deals that other cities put on to attract fans ($31 for a 76ers game and all the food you can eat? You kidding me?) Thank god for the Sea Dogs. There were a surprising number of blank billboards coming eastbound. It always surprises me that the advertising industry can stay as large as it is given that everybody says they don't get influenced by ads. Sure, a lot of it is subconscious, and newer products need to be advertised to get noticed at all, but given the belt-tightening that's occurred over the last 20 years, I'm surprised there hasn't been more a decline.

I can take or leave or billboards as long as the ones on NH-16 on the way to North Conway survive...it just wouldn't be right not knowing when the Yankee Smokehouse is 20 smiles ahead.

Wednesday 2/27

Location: Morton
Weather: Light snow, low 30s, windy
Music: King Crimson (Discipline, Thrak, The Power to Believe)



Didn't have to go to Chester and grading went super-fast (yes!) so I had some free time before dinner and realized I hadn't walked down Yale Ave in forever (spring '06?). As usual, felt sluggish at first before getting into a rhythm. Got a lift somewhere around the end of the college streets when Middy drove by and honked, presumably headed to practice. Not long after that, it started to snow--small flakes, but more substantial than "flurries"--and it did that off and on for the rest of the trip. It was cool until the wind picked up and it got really cold and then it sucked (ok, it was was still pretty sweet.)

On the way out, you pass a triangle of vacant land that was signed as "Unity Park". It was a little disconcerting, not because a quarter-acre of grass doesn't qualify as a park (gotta do what you can with what you've got) but that someone had bothered to call it a park despite the fact that it was completely barren. Some dead grass and a few trees don't really get it done. I mean, we're only talking about a couple of benches between a tiny oasis and a wasteland, but we were at 0 and not counting.

Apart from that, it's just continual houses and apartments of varying quality pretty much all the way to Little Crum Creek park. Seeing Middy reminded me that of course nearly all non-faculty who work at Swarthmore can't afford to live there. The phenomenon of people living in suburbs and commuting into cities is well-established by now, but of course forced suburb-to-suburb commutes must also be common.

Past the park, it gets a little sketchier...some towing company has a big lot full of impounded cars up a side street and in general the space just stops being filled by familiar residences and is disconcertingly open. The post office is normal, but has remarkably little parking and, watching a car have to sit in the road until another guy got out of the way, I was glad I didn't have to deal with this day after day. I had thought the train station was right by the post office and looked for it, but it's actually a little further up the street...next time.

At the Yale Court Apartments near the post office, there was a cat sitting between a set of closed blinds and the window. It looked like some strange household decoration until I approached and it turned to look at me. I went kind of near it and said hi but it wasn't exactly a private spot for the cat voice...plus, it always feels weird to be too friendly towards other people's pets. That's probably not a productive thought.

I pulled into Little Crum Creek Park on the way back and sat in the gazebo for a bit. Looks like the constructed-wetland project is still going on, and then it got real cold.

Came back by way of the ville. It's pretty hard to "not like people" when they come at you as three kids talking animatedly or a young mother laughing with her baby. Walked in the same general area as a couple of Swatties and studiously avoided eye contact. Took the tunnel (with the mural) that goes between the end of the rent-a-spot parking lot and the back corner of the middle school fields. I think they repainted one of the walls white, but it might have always been that way. One of the murals is definitely still intact.

Monday 2/25

Location: Ridley Creek State Park
Weather: Sunny, 40s






Lucked out with another warm day on one of my afternoons off. Ran into Natalie and Meredith on the way to the car; both times I was so far gone into ipod-land that they had to yell and wave to get noticed. Maybe it's time to cut back...

Responding to an advertisement for the first time in...forever?..., I stopped by Great Clips on the pike. There was nobody in sight as I entered but a bored-looking woman came out from the back, offered unnatural greetings ("Welcome to Great Clips!"), took detailed personal information, and we were on our way. I was worried about having to describe my haircut, such as it is, to somebody new after getting it cut exclusively by Steve for 10+ years, but that part went fine. It was almost like that sort of thing happens all the time, or something, can't tell for sure.

From GC, there was no good reason to do anything but take the Pike to Media and N. Providence Road, etc, from there. Got to crank some Stone Temple Pilots thanks to the good folks over at WMMR. Unfortunately, no Foobrurary references.

10 minutes later, I parked at the again-empty lot #16 and after a few mishaps was headed down the Red Trail. It was plenty warm enough for exposed snow to vanish, but the trees were blocking out a lot of the sunlight and there wasn't much melting. Snow or no snow are both fine, but it was nice to not have much mud. Once again, lost the trail at lot #17 and had to walk up the bike path a ways to find it again. I know there's another way after coming from the other direction, but must be missing a key sign or two. No big deal.

After reading Starhawk for ES, I had planned to try and walk more "in the moment", focusing on the sensual experience rather than getting lost in thoughts, listening for birds, the wind, and the like. The crunching snow made this pretty hard, or at least that's what I'm telling the authorities...that it's so hard to focus just on sensations probably means that it's worth doing.

Coming back, I once again failed miserably at finding a way from PA 252 back to Avondale Road. I knew I needed to take a left soon after Plush Mill Road, but the first such left got me into a residential development with no real outlet. After three cul-de-sacs and a couple of inquisitive dog-walkers (who's coming here from Maine?) I was back on 252. The next left was the correct one, but I got screwed up at the train station and ended up headed towards Crum Creek Manor on Brookhaven Rd. They should just name something Brookstrathcrumroseprovidencedale Rd. and get it over with. At least I finally figured out where the Wallingford train stop is.