Entries this day: Skate

Skate

7:42am CDT Wednesday 27 September 2000

Well, skating lasted an hour though I had allocated 30 minutes for it.

I did better than I had previously anticipated! From our house down Montrose to Dallas, watching the rush hour traffic speeding to work. Down Dallas I began to feel the bite of cool air in my throat and lungs. I tried to breathe through my nose as much as possible. Down to Taft and slowly down toward Allen Parkway. I didn't consciously time the light, but it turned green for me (a tad late) and I beat the cars into the intersection and across the "feeder" road. Pause like a lion pacing in the median for a moment to race between cars across the first section of Allen Parkway to the next. Another lion moment there to cross the final section of Allen Parkway. Then slow skate around the crunchy asphalt path along Allen Parkway to downtown. I passed a few joggers along the way.

Downtown. Still here waiting for me after all these months. Louisiana street looks lovely with newly paved lanes and new traffic lights. No longer the kind that just stick straight up on the corners, now it's got big bright lights that arch over the street. Down Louisiana in the right hand lane that still wasn't completely finished (not connected to all the parking lots and driveways) and therefore blocked with barrels for me to skate safely.

Pausing again at the top of one of my favorite hills in Houston, I waited for the lights to turn green. Rush hour traffic begs for more rushing because *all* the lights turn green on the entire street at once. Cars benefit from speeding so they can make one more light. I did not race down the hill though. Just skated normally and let the cars pass me.

All the way to Franklin, where I turned left and then right and then down a sidewalk along Buffalo Bayou. Along the bayou to Memorial, where the sidewalk ends in a parking lot of dirt. Up to the street level, then up along Brazos(?) and then down down an incline back to Allen Parkway the opposite direction.

Steady pace back along the smooth asphalt and just missed a gap in the traffic to jump across the Allen Parkway entrance ramp from I-45. Paused, watched, leapt across the gap to the next sidewalk. Crunchy sidewalk and asphalt all the way to Taft.

Traffic on this side of Allen Parkway doesn't have to stop at this intersection. They travel probably 50 or 55 miles per hour past the Taft light. There's a smooth section of sidewalk that I use like a runway, timing my flight across the three lanes of near highway speed traffic. The gap in traffic arrived and I jumped off the sidewalk and across the street to the median. Made it no problem. Timing was perfect because the other direction did have a red light. I verified they were all stopped then sped across the remainder of the street.

Steady push push push up Taft to Dallas, then along Dallas to Montrose. Past a partially decayed squirrel, then past a mostly decayed squirrel on the next block. Feeling absolutely great to have skated. Home now and it's 8:04am.

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