Confessions of an alley walker

Stress seems to pack on the pounds, and other than parenting, I've discovered nothing so stressful as studying for the bar exam. So late last month, I took to walking in the early hours of the morning. Not so early that it's dark, mind you. Just so early that it's still cool. (July Colorado sunshine can be brutal!) I've discovered that my favorite routes for walking include alleyways. Now, my own back yard doesn't have an alley, given that our particular plat was laid out in the late 1970's after alleys had passed from fashion. All our utilities are buried underground (thus the utility companies have an easement in gross over our back yard, and our yard is the servient estate... the easement having been duly recorded at the courthouse and appearing in our record of title... oops, not a bar exam question. Moving along...) and the trash is picked up in front of the house, instead of behind it. Neighborhoods from here north generally don't have alleys.

But starting a block south of my home, nearly every backyard borders on an alley. I love walking along alleys. They are shadier than the street, and quieter, too, which is an important consideration given that I'm trying to study while I walk. I opted for home-study, which involved paying an additional fee to the bar-exam-review-company for the privilege of having all lectures on a provided i-pod. I review lectures while I walk. Someone watching me would wonder what I'm doing with my hands as I physically act out mental categories as I walk. But for the most part, our town is pretty quiet at 6:00 AM, and I don't see too many people. Except those who are moving their sprinklers around.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Part 8: The Six Young Ladies in the Middle

Image
  PART 8: The Six Young Ladies in the Middle Young Adult Mennonite Group Attends  Farmington Chautauqua, August 1910 By Elizabeth Hervey Osborn Part 1  --   Part 2  --  Part 3  --  Part 4  --  Part 5  --  Part 6  -- Part 7 -- Part 8 The youngest attendees were the four close friends clustered at the center of the middle row. With two older ladies at the ends of their row, it is almost as though their older cousins were protectively surrounding them.   In this last installment, I present here a closer look at their remarkable lives. Dora Katherine Krebill 1886-1972 (4HB, FamilySearch K4GQ-QK4. Find-a-Grave 1160127272) Twenty-three year old Dora was Walter’s older sister, born to Joseph Krebill and Selma Magdalena Weber in 1886 near Donnellson Iowa.  Marriage would not be in Dora's future, but family was everything to her. For decades she helped organize and gather her Krebill cousins - descendants o...
Read more

Part 3: Chautauqua -- The Original TED Talk

Image
  PART 3: Chautauqua -- The Original TED Talk [ 1] Young Adult Mennonite Group Attends Farmington Chautauqua, August 1910 By Elizabeth Hervey Osborn Part 1  --   Part 2  --  Part 3  -- Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6 -- Part 7 -- Part 8 “The most American thing in America,” Teddy Roosevelt supposedly said [2] , was the Chautauqua Movement. Before the days of internet, television, radio, and moving pictures, rural folk had a strong appetite for more knowledge on important cultural, political, and philosophical matters of the day. In the years following the United States Civil War, Methodist church leaders concerned about the quality of adult education organized an annual gathering of Sunday School teachers near Chautauqua Lake, New York, where they brought in the best thinkers and speakers they could find. The gatherings at Chautauqua Lake became an “educational and cultural retreat” for idea-thirsty people of many denominations. [3] Sharp-eyed businessm...
Read more

Part 2: Farmington, Iowa

Image
PART 2: Farmington, Iowa Young Adult Mennonite Group Attends Farmington Chautauqua, August 1910 By Elizabeth Hervey Osborn Part 1 --   Part 2  --  Part 3  -- Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6 -- Part 7 -- Part 8 North of the Des Moines River, near where the border between Iowa and Missouri leaves the  river valley to shoot westward over rolling hills, rests the village of Farmington, Iowa. At the turn of the 20 th century more people lived in Farmington [1] than in the county seat [2] sixteen miles upriver, its prominence fueled by the modern electric light plant, woolen mill, pants factories, flour mills, repair shops, coal mines, quarries, and several vinegar and pickle factories, in addition to the general agriculture of the region. [3] Two passenger and freight lines intersected downtown. The Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad (the “Burlington Route”) served routes east and west. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (the “Rock Island”) ran ...
Read more