Walkies

I walk with the sun hitting the sidewalk as early as 5:30 A.M. in the summer, and as late as 7:30 A.M. in the winter. It is the end of May and I am currently out the door about 6 o’clock each morning. Public school ended last week and there is an eerie calm on the streets. No crossing guards at the intersection between the elementary school my daughter attended for seven years, and the park across the street.  The bustling activity of morning and afternoon pick up and drop off has ended for most but it is the last week of school for my daughter.

I have been walking this route since we moved into our house almost four years ago. We spent nearly a year looking for a home close to the elementary school so my daughter wouldn’t have to switch and we would still be able to walk. After sixth grade, we switched to a public charter school (no vouchers, secret handshakes or other weird BS) when the public middle school she would have attended closed. The charter school is K-12 and is close to our home, about a half a mile north of her previous school. The amusing thing is that the mascot for both schools is an Eagle, but I digress.

During the winter months when I am walking later, I encounter kids from both the middle and high schools waiting for their respective buses. All of theses kids look like sleep deprived zombies, mostly standing in silence staring at their phones. It makes me sad to see them not talking to one another and doing their best to be cool. Adult perspective I hope they will gain, said the least cool person ever.

 

Speaking of cool, the days when we could open the house have dwindled to an hour or so and will soon disappear all together. Update: it's June and they have! People often say the nuclear heat of summer is a small price to pay for the rest of the year but that is hard to remember after several months of 100 degree plus temperatures.

I have mapped out a walking route that is mostly shaded and follows a path through a community green area with lawn that is watered in the early hours. The trees, lawn and mist from the sprinklers help my pug manage the heat, as the temperatures do not fall much below 90 degrees even at 5:30 in the morning.

I love and am grateful for the trees that cast shade on the hot concrete, though I still don’t know what variety they all are. There are some oak trees that our neighborhood is named for and, oddly enough, some pine trees with big fat acorns. My daughter and I used to play “kick the acorn” when she still willingly walked with me. We also collected and decorated some of them at Christmastime. 

There are palm trees, of course, and some really interesting trees with white bark. The smooth white trunks and branches bring to mind the supple limbs of a pale woman. Sometimes the bark burns and peels and since there are some trees with the same type of leaves, but regular craggy bark, I can’t tell if the white trees are the result of exposure to the elements? I think they are a variety of eucalyptus.

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