You'd Miss This In A Moving Car
Sometimes I think walking is even better than biking (please don't be mad at me, fellow bikers)...I just mean that it is so meditative and you can take so much in (biking, though, is still more practical, I think...with it's speed and ability to carry stuff).
I live in the historic Allentown neighborhood of Buffalo...it's a small neighborhood and very walkable and bike-able (is that a word?)...Allentown scores a 97 out of 100 on walkscore (compared to a mere 83 out of 100 for the ever-trendy Elmwood Village). Anyhow, what I like most about the neighborhood is it's funkiness...and the things and people that you see and meet while walking or biking...things you'd most likely never notice while gripping a steering wheel with one hand and a cell phone with the other.
The other day, for example, there was an enormous stuffed panda bear leaning against the brick wall of an apartment building...it was obviously slated for the garbage truck (wish I'd had my camera)...it was beautiful, sitting there in all it's scruffy fluffiness with a brick backdrop. Here's another example: three golf bags at the curb. What's the deal, I wonder? It wasn't garbage day...just three abandoned golf bags sitting at the curb. I'm not sure what it is, but something about seeing them there just made me smile...and laugh a little (it still does). And you'd definitely miss this if you were driving a car.
I live in the historic Allentown neighborhood of Buffalo...it's a small neighborhood and very walkable and bike-able (is that a word?)...Allentown scores a 97 out of 100 on walkscore (compared to a mere 83 out of 100 for the ever-trendy Elmwood Village). Anyhow, what I like most about the neighborhood is it's funkiness...and the things and people that you see and meet while walking or biking...things you'd most likely never notice while gripping a steering wheel with one hand and a cell phone with the other.
The other day, for example, there was an enormous stuffed panda bear leaning against the brick wall of an apartment building...it was obviously slated for the garbage truck (wish I'd had my camera)...it was beautiful, sitting there in all it's scruffy fluffiness with a brick backdrop. Here's another example: three golf bags at the curb. What's the deal, I wonder? It wasn't garbage day...just three abandoned golf bags sitting at the curb. I'm not sure what it is, but something about seeing them there just made me smile...and laugh a little (it still does). And you'd definitely miss this if you were driving a car.
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