Archive for October 23rd, 2023
Stretching my legs in Pittsburgh
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above was captured from the top floor of a hospital parking garage, here in Pittsburgh. A humble narrator had just dropped Our Lady of the Pentacle off for her medical procedure, early in the morning on a cloud struck day. I’d be returning here about six hours later to gather her up and bring her back home, then spent a good week or so trying to shield her from the necessities of life, and the affections of Moe the Dog. The second of two such intervals, responsibility at home precluded one from doing much else. Exigency, it affects us all.
Sleeping was my main goal during this interval, and my personal exercise schedule suffered, which resulted in a creeping bodily stiffness and a sound not unlike crushing handfuls of popcorn emerging from the knees, while walking up and down stairs. After receiving the ‘all clear’ from her medical professionals, Our Lady insisted that I get the hell out of the house and go ‘do my thing.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One rode the T light rail from HQ to the end of the line on Pittsburgh’s North Side, an elevated station across the street from the site of pilgrimage and worship for the Yinzers – a sports ball stadium wherein dwell the Pittsburgh Steelers. That is Acrisure, formerly Heinz, Stadium. The Pittsburgh people call it Heinz, not Acrisure.
My plan for the afternoon was to ease into the walk, but to also include as many flights of stairs into the equation as possible. Ligaments, tendons, and joints – they all formed up into an internal rhythm section. My headphones were plugged into the appropriate orifices, and I was listening to a playlist of Black Sabbath albums.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path I had chosen for the day was informed by the several hospital trips we had made in the prior three weeks by car, and the bridge we drive over in this pursuit. Ultimately, I’d be riding the T back home at the end of the walk, which I’d pick up at the first stop it makes in the central zone of Pittsburgh, at the Station Square stop. It was lovely out, with Pittsburgh displaying an uncharacteristically clear sky, not macerated with dynamic banks of cloud.
It was ‘shorts and a sweatshirt’ weather, which is my favorite sort of atmosphere. For one reason or another I was drawn into using my zoom lens at its widest setting – 24mm – for much of the first half of the walk.
Come with? More tomorrow at your Newtown Pentacle.
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