The Newtown Pentacle

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After my long orthopedic hermitage, recently experienced, your humble narrator is experiencing a lot of emotion. A lot of this unwanted mental activity occurs in the form of impatience which draws on a surprisingly huge and newly arrived reservoir of rage.

Fairness is stuff for children, but there’s an inner child within me who just had to endure multiple months of hellacious pain and the existential horror of having to rely on others for my basic needs. A big part of this recent experience involved just having to just take it when somebody threw a curveball at me. That time is done, and I’ve got a new list.

Normal circumstance sees me bleeding out all of this extra emotional energy via exercise. The lack thereof over the last five months has seriously impacted me both psychologically and physically. My patience for other’s foibles and stupidity has never seen as low a bar as the one in place right now. That time is done, and slapping my feet against the ground is literally all that I want to do right now. Go, go, go.

Filthy black raincoat, Sabbath on the headphones, camera in hand, your humble narrator groaning and cussing. Scuttling along.

First stop for me on this particular walk involved the Pittsburgh community of Beechview, found right next door to HQ in Dormont.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The plan for the day involved catching a T light rail at the ‘Fallowfield’ stop. The T leaves behind running at street grade in the manner of a Trolley here, and the tracks continue onto a cantilevered series of bridges set against the steep hills. That means that you’ve got a series of interesting views here, all of them overlooking a very well lived in residential area. Beechview hosts the steepest street in North America, which is not too far from here. I’m planning on paying Canton Avenue a visit soon, but the ankle isn’t ready for that one yet.

Speaking of, the shattered joint was behaving itself. My gait is still considerably slower than previously, but the limp has alleviated and my foot was hitting down with full heel strikes that were followed by full rolling steps with kick off’s from the toes. This reality has started a series of psychological responses in me that have little to no basis in fact, but are part of how I motivate myself. As John Lydon opined ‘anger is an energy.’ Saying that, I’m also kind of nuts…

‘Nobody thought I’d recover from all this so quickly, even the docs, and there are many out there are sorry to see that I have regained my feet. Hell, they all wanted to see me fail and disappear. Everyone enjoys watching me suffer. My misfortune must have been a moment of celebration for the many who seek my destruction. I’m hated, like an animal – the disposed, despised, and dispossessed…

I will show them all! Soon, I will begin working on my own race of Atomic Supermen, with whom I shall conquer ze vorld!’

Other than that, the jungle is my home, yo.

(In reality, literally everybody around me has been super supportive and accommodating during this nightmare. Principal amongst the many is Our Lady of the Pentacle. Special mentions for my neighbor Charlotte, who picked me up from the hospital after surgery, my pal Brent who drove my car around with Our Lady a bit in order to keep the hybrid battery charged during my wheelchair interval, and my Pal Val who sent me a box of black and white cookies and a deck of cards shortly after the injury to cheer me up. Have to also throw one out o my pal Vinny for sending me an issue of Weird New Jersey to read when I was deepest in the trench. Also, to all of my friends who have had to endure talking to me on the phone – thanks.)

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As described above, in what’s working out to be a Friday manifesto, the T transitions at this station from running at street level with asphalt embedded tracks, to a series of rail bridges that span the valleys below. My plan, incidentally, didn’t involve catching a ride at this particular station, I was just there for the views.

The bridge which the T rides on also offers a long pedestrian walkway between this and the next stop, a path which I wanted to check out.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Pittsburgh bound T arrived, and turned onto the bridge. I hung around a minute, getting a few shots of its passage. Then I leaned into the scuttle and started down that pedestrian bridge leading to the next stop. The ankle was performing as well as could be expected, as far as a reconditioned OEM part goes.

Seriously though, whereas I was extremely aware of the joint and its various new quirks, the walking was pretty easy and I wasn’t experiencing much in the way of pain.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is the pedestrian bridge mentioned above. I wasn’t planning on getting ‘busy’ up here but next time I come through it’s going to be my smaller prime lenses, which can shoot through fence holes, will be installed on the camera instead of the big zoom lens.

Amazing that after two and change years, I’m still scouting locations. Feature rich environment, Pittsburgh is. When it warms up in a month or two, looking forward to coming back to some of these spots at opportune times of day.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My chariot arrived at the second T station which the pedestrian bridge had carried me to. This was a low platform station, so the first step onboard involves pulling yourself up into the thing.

Back next week with more, more, more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

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