Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Thigh blasting funny scuttles
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, a walk down a fairly steep road here in Pittsburgh’s ‘South Side Slopes’ area was undertaken. The effort was concocted in pursuit of reaching and exercising certain muscle groups in the legs, which weakened during the multi month recovery period after one suffered a broken left ankle, in September of last year. Horror plagues me, given the speed at which I now walk and my lessened capability to turn the planet beneath my feet. Fatigue, which I believe the French probably pronounce as ‘Fat Ih Gway,’ sets in quickly these days.
Always, I ponder: What if?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a question I ask myself all the time. If a proverbial ‘poop hits the fan’ moment pops up and I find myself in the middle of something awful (Zombies, Hurricane Sandy returns, 911 returns, storms, blizzards, blackouts, fires etc.), could I just walk away from it to get safe?
The answer I used to offer in NYC was that at my normal walking pace, I could painfully handle about 25 miles or so a day with my twenty pound camera bag (for reference) on my back if I had to, but there would be a price to pay for that sort of all day long ‘leaning into it.’ Blisters, sprains, garment failure, fatigue building all day… I’m also restricting the walking to daylight hours, so twelve hours at two to two and half miles an hour… that used to be comfortably doable for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just remember, though, I’m in my late 50’s and have never been a physical ‘specimen’ so I move at my own pace, particularly so these days.
In comparison to this shadow of his former self – an 18 year old soldier, according to Google’s Ai – moves like the Flash compared to me: ‘In the US Army, a standard ruck march requirement for earning badges like the Expert Infantryman Badge (EIB) and Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB) is a 12-mile foot march carrying a 35-pound load, completed in no more than three hours.’
I hope that whatever emergency it is that I’d have to walk from doesn’t involve being chased by the Army. Y’ never know…
What if I become contaminated and mutate into an emerald rage monster? Can’t expect the military to overlook that sort of thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the point where South 18th street flattens out, I found myself having to walk a few blocks east to South 21st street in order to get around some construction work blocking the way. I could have stuck with South 18th, but the construction work introduced a series of obstacles which aren’t – what I’ve come to describe as – ‘ankle friendly.’
This walk was all about the exercise, I’d remind. The downhill section involved hitting certain otherwise difficult to reach muscle groupings at the top and front of the thigh, which a controlled descent down a steep grade would hit. The section starting here is largely flat land, alongside the flood plain of the Monongahela River. A different set of rubber bands and muscles would be hit on this section as I leaned into things. The big muscles in the butt, and back of thigh, specifically.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was fairly evenly divided, this scuttle. Roughly half of the mileage was downhill, with the remainder occurring in a largely two dimensional fashion. Saying all that, yeah, I was experiencing a good amount of discomfort, but was successfully avoiding dragging my foot, limping, or walking like the Batman villain Penguin. This is progress.
As you may have noticed by now, I’m desperate for sympathy and a pat on the back promising ‘you’re going to get there, pal.’ I’ve started making summer plans, some of which are a bit ambitious. If I don’t have some actual ‘fun’ soon, your humble narrator may go limping off into the woods while screaming obscenities and not return.
All work and no play make Mitch a Mitch Mitch.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thing about Pittsburgh – lots and lots of churches. I’m intrigued, but haven’t done any of the social networking involved with getting invited in to record the blessed fineries. I’m like a vampire… and need to be invited in to do my thing. Hate doing ‘run and gun’ shots in sacred spaces.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
Don’t worry, it’s all downhill from here
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My latest inquiries into the urban milieu of Pittsburgh involved a roadway path referred to as either ‘South 18th street’ or the ‘South 18th street extension.’ According to the fairly excellent ‘Pittsburgh Streets’ site, this pathway was originally called Meadow Street in its lower section (as of 1869), with the upper section referred to as the ‘Brownsville Plank Road’ until it was renamed as the ‘South 18th street extension’ in 1881.
Me?
As it happened, opportunity saw your humble narrator driving through here about a week ago while avoiding a traffic situation, and it was decided that I’d like to walk through and see what I could see. The virtue that this sort of street offers is its long slope, which allows one to access the otherwise difficult to exercise musculature in the front of the thigh, specifically the large triangular muscles connecting to the hip. It also really works the calf muscles on the sides of the legs, this sort of slope. In both cases, my long recovery from the broken ankle has seen muscular atrophy set in and I needed a workout, even one that’s only a few miles long.
Off we go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First stop involved a quick scuttle into St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery. I’m notoriously a fan of such mortuary polyandrions, but this was the start of what’s currently a long walk for me and I didn’t want to spend my ‘ankle doesn’t hurt right now’ time in this particular pursuit. It’s a fairly large property, and I intend on returning when I’m behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform, a Toyota.
Saying that… what? I’m in a cemetery and not getting any shots in?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yep, there’s a view. I’ll be back sometime soon when time is propitious.
Regardless, one leaned into the scuttle and started down a fairly steep hill, down towards the South Side Flats section which South 18th street leads to.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A series of sharp turns awaits drivers on South 18th. My problem, however, involved the actual quality of the substrate I was walking on, but that’s why I chose this path. I won’t be regaining any agility or strength by walking on level carpeted floors, it’ll be by walking on pavers, and broken sidewalks, and weirdly angled pedestrian paths which cause my legs to flex in different ways on each step. A real obstacle course is what I was looking for, and I found it.
The terrain here is extremely steep, with hilltops breaking off suddenly and offering sheer cliff faces which drop off 50-100 feet. Recently. I learned that – on average – 28 people a year die in Pittsburgh from falling off cliffs. Whenever I’m marveling at the terrain, the Pittsburgh natives just kind of yawn. I explain that I’m from a place near the ocean, with neighborhoods called ‘Flatbush,’ and ‘Flatlands.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For most of this walk, I was the lone pedestrian. Every now and then, you’d spot somebody getting out of a car, or throwing out the trash.
One thing I had to be careful about was not picking up speed while walking down this sharply graded street. Have to keep on reminding myself that I’m not out of the woods yet, nor as capable as I am normally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I kept on keeping on, heading down hill. Obviously a great deal easier than walking uphill (that’s this summer at the earliest), nevertheless I was ‘feeling the burn’ after just the first mile of my downhill scuttle.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
Down, with the T
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I drive through that intersection pictured above, in Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont, at least once a day. Every single time, I comment to myself that I should some shots of the light rail there. Instead of parking the car and doing so I always lazy out and head back to HQ about four blocks away instead. Some day, I say.
Get behind me Satan, this day would be that day.
The light rail tracks cross through here, but they leave behind a street running section of the line and proceed into a right of way that clearly pre-dates the real estate development around it. Apparently, the T made use of decommissioned trolley lines when its ’right of way’ was being laid out to take advantage of existing municipal real estate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Pittsburgh bound T showed up, catching some nice afternoon light as it did. At my back was the station I normally use, and these tracks continue out several miles to the South Hills Village Mall terminal stop on one side, or continue on to a North Side of Pittsburgh terminal stop nearby one of the sportsball stadiums.
Your humble narrator had taken up station right alongside the intersection in the first shot, if you’re curious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A South Hills bound T arrived next, and I hurriedly crossed the street for a better angle. I mean, as ‘hurried’ as I can manage these days. One of the parts of my life that sucks right now is that I’m fairly slow moving at this stage of the medical drama, and will be spending the spring season getting my legs all muscled up. My normal walking speed used to be about 2-2.5 miles an hour, these days I’m lucky if I can do a mile in that interval.
Getting better every day, in every way. When I’m whole again…
Back next week with something different – 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.
Lots of hills, very few dales
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Challenging. That’s how I’d describe what it’s like handling the terrain of Pittsburgh with an ankle that’s recovering from a severe break. As I’ve found myself having to remind people in my daily life, the injury also involved a dislocation of the foot, which ‘popped’ a tendon or two and damaged a lot of the soft tissue in leg, ankle, and foot. It’s been a deal, coming back from this one, I tell’s ya…
Regardless of how I might feel, or the free flowing availability of pain, it’s incumbent upon your humble narrator to return to his normal ways and the only way I’m going to get there is by walking it off.
Pictured is the Avenue I live on, as a note, and it’s got a relatively shallow grade compared to the neighboring Avenues. The Borough of Dormont does not streets, it has avenues and ‘ways.’ 19th century politics, that. There were no ‘mean streets’ here, instead stately avenues.
‘Ways’ are basically alleys.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was meant to meet some friends for an event at a nearby brewery, and while waiting on them (I’m always pathologically early) the crazy terrain again caught my eye. That castellated structure in the distance is the PPG HQ building, roughly 5-6 miles away in Downtown Pittsburgh. This block, which I actually have been forced to walk up in the last month or so, is a real pain in the neck AND butt to navigate. You really gotta lean into it.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the worst hill in my neighborhood. Not too far away, in neighboring Beechview, is found the steepest street in the entire western hemisphere of the planet – Canton Avenue. It’s part of what a bicyclist group calls ‘The Dirty Dozen’ of Pittsburgh’s hills.
Globally, there’s a steeper street than Canton Avenue found in New Zealand – I’m told – and that the Kiwis hold the Guinness Record for the steepest grade on a public street in the world. It edges Canton Avenue out of the top spot by a half a degree.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the top of the hill, the tracks of the T Light Rail system are encountered.
Transit was one of the many factors which decided ‘Dormont for us’ when we relocated here at the end of 2022. My friends and I continued on to the event we were heading to, and made merry. I had a stop I wanted to make on the way back home, so I said my goodbyes and set off on a distinctly down hill course. More on that tomorrow.
Ostensibly, a descending grade should be easier walking, but given that the ankle is still getting used to being walked on again… Angling the foot and keeping it in that position to accommodate the grade actually kind of hurt. I found myself continually picking up speed on the down hills and having to slow myself down by grabbing onto a sign or utility pole.
Great, now I gotta get me some brakes.
What a drag. Back tomorrow.
“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.
Mundane funsburgh
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle led the charge on a recent weekend day, when she announced that she’d like us to attend an ‘Oddities’ convention at Pittsburgh’s Convention Center, which is found along the Allegheny River on the so called ‘Golden Triangle.’ It was your standard sort of ‘con’ show, with individual vendors and artists tabling in booths and selling or displaying their wares. Taxidermy was a big part of this ‘oddities’ dealie, but there were all sorts of people selling all kinds of ‘weird’ stuff.
Personally, I grew colossally bored after about 45 minutes. So I announced that I was going to take a powder for awhile and meet up with Our Lady (and a couple of friends) after they had explored the offerings. It was basically a shopping trip at this point, which is something I don’t find fun. I headed outside into an atmosphere bitter cold and heavy wind.
That’s when I heard it. Diesel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Fort Wayne Rail Bridge, and I should mention that I had left my ‘superzoom’ lens at home and was armed only with an 85mm prime lens, was allowing egress from the central peninsula of Downtown Pittsburgh and across the Allegheny River to the ‘North Side’ for a Norfolk Southern’s train allowing it access to the trackage found along the Ohio River.
Wooie!
Wish I had the zoom with me, but I kind of like these shots of the Norfolk Southern’s transit for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was hauling tanker cars, ones which were too far away for me to have any idea what was in them. Gotta say that when you see a train going by and the screed on the tanker car says something like ‘WARNING! Molten Sulfur,’ it does give you pause. Law of averages says that eventually something’s going to go badly, somewhere. Remember East Palestine, in Ohio, when that train exploded and burnt? About 70-80 miles from my house in Pittsburgh, that was.
Of course, when I lived in Manhattan, 911 happened six miles from my house, so you’re really not safe from disaster anywhere. I’ve always strived to be an optimist, Y’see.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
The Newtown Pentacle 