The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Exercise day was once more exigent, a schedule which I try to approach with a certain amount of religiosity. The goal set for my day involved working on speed, as in consciously quickening my steps while moving about. One of the things, regarding the ankle situation, that I’m still dealing with, involves ‘pace.’ Walking speed, as it were.

My stride is back, but I often find myself standing at street intersections staring at the ‘walk/dont walk’ sign while reminding myself that ‘you can’t run, Mitch.’ I won’t be jogging, probably ever, but I do need to regain some ‘burst speed’ capability.

One thereby dragged his derrière up the hill in Dormont to the T light rail station at Potomac Avenue, and the train was soon depositing me in Pittsburgh’s Allentown, at a temporary stop which I’ve been using all summer as a springboard for similar pursuits.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This was a downhill course for me, which would follow ‘Brosville Street,’ down to the flat land along the Monongahela River. Not as steep as a few of the other branching paths leading from Allentown’s temporary T stop, but still a cool walk that I hadn’t taken yet. I have driven it several times, as this is a local streets ‘shortcut’ I’ll use when the bridges and tunnels are highly congested, in order to get from one side of Mount Washington to the other. Every time I’ve driven through here, I keep on saying ‘gotta walk that sometime.’

Sometime is today! There is no tomorrow, only the tyranny of the now. Yesterday has already happened, so don’t worry about it as there’s nothing you can do to change what happened. Start today!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A deer was encountered, but I screwed the shot up while trying to photograph him. Take a look, if you want. Focus was off, and so was the exposure. I have a pretty good batting average when it comes to random stuff encountered, but this particular deer didn’t want to stand there and pose for me. As soon as I pointed the camera at him, he shot off into the woods. Bah!

A long, hot, and fairly dry summer has delayed the autumnal displays, up in the verge, until the very end of October and the beginning of November this year. There was about two weeks worth of orange up in the hills, until it suddenly grew very cold and windy at the start of November. The leaves just browned, and then blew away or dropped. Bah!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

‘Disturbingly heterogeneous’ is how I’d describe the building stock up here. Every plot of land is different in size, shape, and verticality. Each building seems to have unique adaptations to the terrain it squats upon built in. Fascinating.

As I say every time, it must be a real challenge to live in the South aside Slopes area due to this crazy terrain. Particularly so during the snowy months. Yikes.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Brosville Street intersects with Pius Street at its terminus, nearby a Catholic Church which has been converted into Condominium Apartments.

Y’know, if I was born rich, instead of just good looking…

Behind that former church building is where you can find a cool pathway along Pittsburgh’s ‘City Steps,’ dubbed ‘the Church Route Steps.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This time around, I wasn’t quaking with fear from the vestigial PTSD left over from the broken ankle. In fact, and in accordance with my stated goal of increasing walking speed – I positively hurtled down the stairs here, or at least comparatively so to other recent scuttles.

Back tomorrow with more.

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