Saturday Afternoon Walk in Minus Twenty

 I went for a walk around the area, I did. I had to experience what minus twenty was really like, I figured. I’ll be busy on most Saturdays in January, I figured. Also I didn’t want to go to the Mall and have my dark suspicions about the Christmas shopping season confirmed, I figured.  I also figured that I would take nine photos on my walk with my IPhone 6, but it didn’t work in the cold for more than three photos, so I didn’t. Take nine photos, that is.  After uploading the three photos I did take, I would have to resort to prose to describe or account for the rest of my walk, I figured.

Any who.  Enough rambling.  Now, I babble incoherently.

The first photo, which is at the top of this blog entry,  I took to show how the snow was on the ground everywhere.

The second photo, I’ll upload to just below this sentence.

This was the walking path in front of the Brandon Source for Sports shop.  A tractor cleared the sidewalk of snow.  However as soon as I got to the end of the plaza property line, there was deep snow through which to wade.  Shame I never took a photo to illustrate.  That wading was so annoying!  I almost want to be a Karen when I think of it now.

I then took the third photo uploaded just under this sentence.

That’s what the surface of the next cleared parking lot looked like.  Seemingly desolate, n’est pas?

Now, I must use the expedient of prose.

I then walked past  the beer store and a place called Forbidden Flavors: a place I’d be inclined to go to if it was in my budget. It is artsy fartsy, I heard.  And I did notice pretty attractive and slim and trendy women, their faces flush red in the cold, carrying their freshly made beverages to their vehicles.  FF is a coffee shop.

FF cornered onto 18th street which was busy with traffic.  All going to the Mall, i  figured.  I wanted to take a photo to illustrate, but the IPhone 6 was not responsive.  Either it ran out of power or wouldn’t work in the cold, I figured.  I walked north on the old 18th till I got to the corner with Park Avenue: the one of the four that has the Dairy Queen on it. I figured I would cross 18th and then walk south back on 18th to get back to Casa Mama. 

Crossing 18th, I felt almost guilty.  There I was, a lone walker, delaying the shopping trips of these people in vehicles, I figured.  But then a big black pickup truck turned in front of me, not yielding to let me cross. As I said, I almost felt guilty, not.  

Going south on 18th, I recrossed the railroad tracks. I say recrossed because I did cross the tracks when going north, but I neglected mentioning it till now.  On both crossings, I tried to take photos of the tracks appeared in the snow but the IPhone 6 didn’t work. And I wasn’t going to use my IPhone 13 which was also with me.  Which is another story altogether.  

My walk south was uneventful except for encountering another pedestrian.  He looked menacing with a tattoo on his face but I looked him in the eye and he gave me the knowing, friendly smile that said we were special to be walking in this cold, I figured.