Thoughts on a walk around town

    After being trapped in my apartment exile by snow and cold for a good amount of time, I go for a wander around the town in which I reside. As I often do on these sort of excursions, I start by heading east along the main road… I don’t know why I tend this way, and I should probably give that some thought at some point. I pass the makeup shop, my neighbors’ chief rival pizza shop, and the diet center that I have never seen anyone enter or leave, once more noting the irony of it’s location so close to a pizza shop and positing to it’s imminent demise. Here I reach my first obstacle, a lake of watery slush deep enough to completely engulf my shoes, spanning the breadth of one of the boutique stores that lay empty and dormant during the winter months while the proprietors are down in Florida or other such warmer climes. I know from past experience that my jumping ability leaves much to be desired, so leaping over said puddle is out. The outer curb is a slowly melting wall of ice and former street snow, so that eliminates that option. I mount the step in front of the inactive boutique safely, then ponder at my next move. Were I younger, fitter, and far more athletic than my over triple decade frame is, I might have come up with any number of solutions. However, perhaps spurred on by watching and adventuring in worlds with highly questionable physics mechanics, I think to try grabbing hold of the wall and swinging myself around over the water to a shallower spot beyond. This proves to be far exceeding my abilities, as I underestimate the exact amount of wall there is, and just how far the entrenched slush extends, finding that it actually progresses around the corner of the building. Ultimately, my feet find purchase dead center in the middle of the puddle and I trudge on, mildly faux cursing the offending sludge now slowly creeping through the leather of my sneakers and into my socks, trying to ignore the cackles of the middle schoolers who have witnessed this feat of futility from outside their after school refuges of the pizza shop and the not far ahead doughnut chain store. 

    I make surprised and slightly saddened note of signs indicating the imminent closure of the next shop along the way, one of the only toy shops to be found in this area, albeit known for it’s exurbanite prices and tendency away from major name brand goods. However I may have to stop in while they are liquidating their stock soon, since I did manage to locate an item I have been seeking for one of my collections for some time there this past Christmas, and there’s a slim chance it could still be there, now at a slightly more reasonable price point. I proceed down the block, past the overpriced high end tv store, past the doughnuts, accessory boutiques, and acupuncturists, past the snooty French baker, the consignment shop that is looking to relocate across the street, and the stationary store. At the intersection I stop and look ahead, judging the conditions of the sidewalk in front of the upcoming church to be too cluttered with other, similar slush puddles to be viable, and instead hit the button for the crosswalk and wait to proceed diagonally.

 

    After narrowly being missed by a human-guided missile with no idea what a turn signal is for, nor the concept of pedestrian right of way, I come to the town’s possibly poshest eatery, a rather over accredited and overpriced Chinese and Japanese restaurant… at least in my opinion. Beautiful building, luxurious interior and atmosphere, but for what they charge I could have twice as much back home. My neighbor will occasionally send me here to retrieve a dinner for herself… she’ll spend at least twenty minutes looking over a take home menu for the place, ask me what some of the dishes are, consider something new, and then invariably just order a pork or shrimp fried rice and a California roll, complain that the stuff is too “greasy”, swear it off for good, and then consider it again the next night. This is what I get for being a picky eater as a kid, isn’t it? “No, they don’t have angel hair noodle soup. You’re not even thinking of angel hair noodles, you’re thinking ramen, and no, they don’t serve ramen and you know that, because you ask that every time.” Maybe next time I go into Philly proper I’ll stop at Nom Nom and get her a bowl of proper ramen just to show her what the real stuff is supposed to be… no, that’ll just confuse her and she’ll complain she can’t eat most of the stuff in it because only two of her teeth AREN’T bothering her…ye gods the fit she had when she sent one of her drivers to buy some ramen at the supermarket and he came back with the cup noodle type instead of the fried blocks of noodles type… “I can’t eat this! It takes too much chewing!” That’s actually the LEAST problem I’ve heard from a pot noodle, but I didn’t want to belabor the point at the time, as I felt sorry for the driver.

 

    I turn and continue down the road, passing the Italian market/deli with it’s lousy hours of business, the second hand shop that is always looking for volunteers, but only from little old ladies… the flower shop… and one of the most interesting looking buildings in town. If I could find the floor map of that building, I’d love to try to figure out how to work it into a tabletop game. It’s one of the older, historic buildings in town. Not entirely sure what it’s used for now, I never actually go up to it, but it looks so gothic and could easily be made very atmospheric… Now I pass another consignment shop, and a hair/nail salon… this town really needs some variety… Oh, look, coming soon, another stationary store, just what we don’t need… now the former Persian rug dealers, which then tried to switch over to interior design, then died again… ah, now it’s going to be interior design AND Persian rugs… some people just can’t take a hint. 

    On the bright side, the sidewalks on this side of the street are quite clear, but on the downside, they have many metal basement doors and grates that have been made slick with the cold water, making safe passage slow… past one of the many banks in this town… and one of the only ones I haven’t gone into seeking change for my neighbors. Something about a light-colored bank doesn’t sit right with me. Now the organic bakery chain… another hair salon… a numismatist, followed by another pizza shop… seriously, VARIETY! We’ve got, what, like seven different pizza shops in this town. Finally I come to where the Rite Aid has moved to. It’s larger and has more stuff, but it’s still the same place… just a shame it’s moved all the way to the edge of town, barely a block from it’s biggest competitor. At least they have a parking lot. I stop in for a few goods, then head as I came, sticking to this side of the road this time, passing what used to be a candy shop but will be the new home of one of the boutiques… another bank… guh… seven pizza shops, three houses of worship, four banks, and not one video store. Anyway… ah, the hotel… second of the three places I’d love to get a floor plan of for a tabletop game map setting… followed by the third place, another of the town’s churches. Such nice old-looking buildings. Now the painting class shop… a realtor… the dayspa I’ve never seen anyone go to… I’m back at my main intersection… I decide to go North, past more realtors, an expensive Mexican bar, a camping goods shop, an optometrist, and the fanciest of the pizza shops in town, right in front of the train station. I’d say it’s a bad location for such a thing, but it seems to get decent business. Reaching the intersection before the station, I cross the street and head back, past the pub (really need to use that gift card one of these days), 2 more pizza shops… I stop in the used book store. They never have anything I’m looking for when I’m actually on the hunt for a book, and always seem to be on the verge of closing up for good, but I stop in anyway… This place is essentially the only rival my library’s donation department has, and it always looks FAR more cluttered than our department, but it feels better organized somehow. Maybe because it’s not entirely run by volunteers, I dunno. I carefully work my way around stacks of lightly used books, quickly ponder the one bookshelf they have of fantasy/sci-fi, and make my way back out. I continue toward the primary intersection again, passing the OTHER overpriced Mexican bar and the town’s most mainstay “family” restaurant… I wave to my barber, my hair not yet unruly enough to warrant a trim, and glance at the shiney baubles in the window of the town jeweler.

    Once more at the main light, I turn west once more, passing the coffee shop I’ve frequented often for my neighbors, a children’s pottery painting place, the movie theater with it’s 5 screens of nothing good on this time of year, the camera shop that is now an olive oil vendor (how does this place stay in business?!), and stop into what used to be the Rite Aid but is now a pet shop. I cannot afford a pet, nor would I want to keep one in my apartment by myself, but I stop in anyway to commune with the animals. Up by the registers they keep the kittens they have up for adoption, a few of which are milling about in a makeshift playpen. I notice one has knocked one of it’s toys from the pen, and toss it back to the felines, who quickly fight over it before ultimately knocking it back out of the pen. I shake my head. “Cats,” I mutter, as I head back toward where I normally come to rest here, with the fishtanks, rodents, lizards, birds, and ferrets. I’m a bit happily depressed that it seems my favorite of the ferrets has found itself a home, and they now have an albino ferret. It’s the time of day when these fuzzy eels are sound asleep, so I don’t wake them, but I do note the odd angle of their limbs and spines as they sleep. I ponder whether they wake up with cramped or sleeping limbs from resting such a way briefly before wandering over to investigate the other mammal here I’ve been fascinated by since the store’s opening… the chinchilla. I remember watching a short video from… it was either Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood or Sesame Street… that showed kids raising a chinchilla that made me want one. This thing looks about 3 times the size of the one in that video. Having now owned at least two hamsters, I’m not exactly keen on a chinchilla, but it’s neat to see one in person. I watch the mostly sleeping rodents for a bit, twitter at the chirping birds, and watch the fish circle their tanks briefly before continuing on. I head along the back wall, toward the dog wash and groomers, but they’re presently not in use, so I make my way back out.

 

    I head back to my apartment, drop off most of my purchase from Rite Aid, before going over to my neighbor’s pizza shop, finding the lady of the household not busy at the moment. I walk up to her with the last bit of my procurement… “Here. Emergency supply, for the next time you work yourself sick.” I hand her the six pack of her favorite chicken-flavored ramen I picked up. She cries and laughs at the same time, thanking me and offering to repay me, which I turn down. “My treat. Besides, you guys look out for me enough as it is, this is just another way I can do the same for you.” It pays to be a good neighbor.