Thursday, January 13, 2011

Walking

I've started walking again at lunch.  I've mentioned it before but when you live in a state that leads the nation in obesity and has sidewalks few and far between you don't see a lot of people walking.  Add to that, the knowledge that its been in the 40's around noon in a sub-tropic place where most people are cold when it drops below about 60 and you have a recipe for eccentricity.  Hopefully, no one calls the police on the dangerous walking woman.

This is the railroad switch near my library.  While, it's very annoying to be "caught" by the train, I love that I get to see the trains every day.  You may think it's crazy but I think there is something very appealing about the the railroad tracks and the bascule bridge farther down the line.  I know some might see it as industrial and bleak but I think it has a certain kind of attraction. 

Photo: Downtown Pascagoula, West of Pascagoula Street

10 comments:

  1. Heh...I think I'll start walking at lunch when it warms up to the 30s :-)

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  2. Architectural beauty can have a stark lovely beauty around light and shade and angles. I try to walk every lunchtime. I find it clears and renews my focus.

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  3. Add in the wind chill, and your post prandial photo perambulations become even more impressive. They were in the twenties awhile yesterday morning.

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  4. I used to love the trains when I worked overnights at Winn-Dixi. They were sort of company. I'd hear the train whistles marking the hours and that lonely sound was oddly comforting.

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  5. My office has moved and I so terribly miss my walks in the downtown area. I have always been one for exercise but honestly walking was the absolute best way for me to keep my weight down...

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  6. Years ago we lived about a mile from "the tracks", and one would come through about 11 every night. I would love to lie in bed with the windows open (when the temps were moderate) and listen to the train's whistle and the clackity-clack of the wheels on the tracks. I found it very relaxing.

    I walk 5+ miles a day and find it has definitely helped keep my weight in line. Thanks for the nice photo. :)

    S

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  7. I love the view of the train here in New Orleans from the Mississippi River trail but I positively detest it from the road. It invariably "catches" me when I am late for work.

    I have taken to walking during my lunch break at work and it does refresh my spirit and clears my mental pathways.

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  8. There is a reason that Blues and Country Music singers have always sung about trains. Going back to The Wabash Cannonball, to Take the A Train, to Wreck of the Old 97, trains are one of the greatest themes in American popular culture. And for good reason since they were once ubiquitous, and are always evocative. You may have inspired me to write a blog of my own about the significance of trains in American culture!

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  9. What an awesome post. I really like what you wrote and the photo as well. We enjoy listening to the train on the other side of town as it passes through early in the morning on its way to somewhere.

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  10. Intelli, all I can say to that is Brrr... I'm shivering just thinking about it.

    Maggs, if I don't get out at lunch I end up spending all my outside time for the day in the car. Ick. I like to get out just to feel the air.

    Fin, it was quite cold.

    blondcat, that's a lovely sentiment. The trains do seem to be an integral part of the soundtrack here on the coast.

    Bobby, yes, walking is just so good for a person.

    Scott, going to sleep to the sound of the train sounds really nice. I used to live up hill from some tracks, they were five or six blocks away and while I didn't hear the train in the house, I heard it on my walks and while working in the yard. It was very nice.

    fragilewisdom, I'm lucky in how the trains are timed in downtown. They rarely block things in the morning. The afternoon can be a different story however.

    CG, I think you should right that blog. I would enjoy reading it. One of my favorite storytimes to do is "Trains". The children's stories are great and we sing old railroad songs.

    Wildstorm, thanks. There's just something special and even iconic in that railroad track winding across the country.

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