Archive for October 2026
Bopping, over Bigelow
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once more unto the breech, and a ‘stretch and shvitz’ kind of exercise day was on my menu.
A rideshare dropped me at the veritable gateway to the Bloomfield Bridge, here in Pittsburgh, and after a moment of personal organization regarding the camera and bags and straps your humble narrator was soon on the move, and scuttling against the inevitability of entropy once again.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp grows ever more severe. These shots were gathered, and the walk perpetrated, on the 13th of August. If my scheduling all works out, you’re receiving this in early October.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself straight up loves pedestrian bridges like the one pictured above and below, spanning over Bigelow Boulevard, which de facto is an arterial road despite being classed as a ‘local’ one.
This ped bridge has to date back to the 60’s or 70’s – governments just don’t ‘spend’ on pedestrian infrastructure like this anymore. It’s part of why they like bike lanes so much – as the lanes are just paint and plastic sticks (vertical delimiters), which are cheap to install.
Up I went. The sound I made was analogous to that produced at the extreme right hand side of a piano’s keyboard as it is being ‘plinked.’
Bink, bink, bink…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dynamism, that’s my thing. Every chance I could find to strike a pose on the way up, and then across, was taken. I made the Zoolander face.
It was hot. Really, really hot. High 80’s, with about 70% humidity. It was about 10 or 11 on a Thursday morning when I started this effort, and it was already unbearable out. There was supposed to be a street fair in front of me, but to be honest – that’s just an obstacle – and I had no interest in participating in Bloomfield’s ‘Little Italy Festival.’
The big celebrity draw for that event was the presence of actor Vito Spatafore, who was simply being billed as ‘Vito from the Sopranos.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan was to move as quickly as I could through an obstacle course of Pittsburgh’s various geological barriers. Eventually, and as usual, I’d need to get back to the T light Rail somehow to get back to HQ.
I took a lot of pics, but the main motivation for me on this day was to get my heart rate up and then keep it elevated for a few hours.
One was walking a bit quicker than usual, up around three mph, as my normal/comfortable velocity is slightly slower at 2.3 – 2.6 mph.
Yes, I keep track of all that on my phone… metrics. It was a big deal for me, post broken ankle, when I broke through the 2 mph barrier.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The muscles in my legs have hardened up again.
The thighs are iron, the calves bronze, if I do say so myself.
The ankle still hurts all the time, especially so after a long walk. I’ve got arthritis in the affected joint now too. The skinvelope is still oddly discolored around the joint, and it’s not just on the side where the surgical scar is found. Lots and lots of visible blood vessels have also sprung up around the site of the injury, offering the appearance of a spider web of varicose veins. It’s all quite spectacular, really, but as I’m also closing in on the brink of sixty…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thinks about his calendrical age a lot these days.
I reminisce about my Dad when he was at my current age, and I have to say that – my perception – is that I’m a far younger man – at the same age – than he was. At least I don’t fall asleep behind the wheel at red lights, like the old man used to.
My relatives and friends all point out that this is all perceptual bullshit and self aggrandizement when I utter something like this, gleefully reminding me of all the things medically and psychologically wrong with me, and then end their admonition with that most Jewish of expressions:
‘Shut up, you wanna give call down a conahurra on yourself?’
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Weird giant mushrooms
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is a bit of an aside, and describes a situation which popped up in the back yard of HQ, here in Pittsburgh’s Dormont. Weird giant mushrooms, which arise shortly after heavy rain events, and display an incredible amount of growth in quite a short interval.
The thingie pictured above transformed into the flopped over monster seen below, and all within 24 hours.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I put a soda can alongside of the fungal protuberance for scale.
Big, I tell you, it was big.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At night, the thing began to balloon out and open. By the time that this process played out, the crown of the mushroom had flattened out and got to the size of a dinner plate with about a one inch hard vertical edge.
It’s odd.
Incidentally, these mushrooms weren’t glowing red, instead I had set my pocket led flashlight to red earlier, and couldn’t remember how to actuate the combination of clicks required to get it back to displaying white light.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When it fully opens, the mushroom displays its gills and flops over. The spores will fall out of the gills, onto soil or to get picked up on the wind.
A quick google search revealed these mushrooms as likely being ‘Green-Gill Parasols,’ a poisonous specie colloquially known as ‘The Vomiter.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One wasn’t satisfied with that first shot of the flopped over mushroom, and had to rearrange my flashlight’s luminance because that sort of thing matters to me.
What piqued my interest about these things was the fact that my back yard here in Dormont is an herbivore superhighway. Deer, woodchucks, groundhogs, two different kinds of squirrel, a population of rabbits so extensive that we’ve started giving them names. All these critters drive Moe the Dog absolutely crazy.
All of those herbivores, and not one single nibble into those giant, weird mushrooms. The Vomiter, indeed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thereby- I present the Vomiter to you, lords and ladies, lit up in scarlet.
Somehow it feels like the last seventeen years of my life have all been leading up to offering that last sentence.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
