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DEL.ICIO.US6 miles of rolling bones and stalking feet
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After walking to work this morning from Decatur, I have concluded that those pedestrian signal buttons at busy intersections are traffic engineers’ idea of a wedgie. My husband says he has it on good authority — a county traffic guy — that most of the buttons are not even connected to anything. If I waited for the walk signals to cross the street today, I’d still be at Edgewood and Boulevard.
But otherwise the six-mile walk was great, taking me through Lake Claire, Candler Park and Inman Park, the core of liberal Atlanta. I am glad my colleague Jim Wooten wasn’t with me. Jim, with the John Kerry signs still on lawns, the Che Guevara T-shirts in shop windows and the “Bush Lies” graffiti on the sidewalks, it would have been your Trail of Tears.
I got hungry about halfway through and considered stopping at my boss Cynthia Tucker’s house for breakfast. But I knew the only thing in her fridge was probably a jar of low-fat mayonnaise.
Even though I’ve driven this route a thousand times, I saw things today I never noticed before, including a shop selling love potions, a lighting store with the sign, “Think outside the bulb,” and a drive-through barbecue joint called Rolling Bones. My favorite sight was a front-yard fountain whose water spouted through a pumpkin.
I collected friendly nods from other walkers, but the bikers in Spandex snubbed me. I kept expecting to see Cynthia puffing her way to work on her bike, but she claims she took a different route than I did. She showed up at the office in bike shorts and a helmet but I told her I wanted to inspect her car to see whether a bike rack was on top.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Maureen Downey
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By Karama Neal
November 10, 2005 12:24 PM | Link to this
Way to walk with a purpose, Maureen! It’s nice to have that option, and it’s a great way to get in a workout. Six miles isn’t too bad a walk, particularly if there are sidewalks and crosswalks. That’s part of the reason I voted for the Dekalb bonds. By the way, I absolutely agree with your husband about those pedestrian crossing buttons. I push them just for show, then cross the best way I know how.