The Accidental Pedestrian (TAP) — #4

Author: Marc, January 13th, 2010

The sun came out today and the snow started to melt just a little more.   Most of the major streets in this part of the metro area are clear and amazingly plows were out pushing the nasty sludgy blackened mess even higher on top of the lost sidewalks. Where have they gone?

A Large Pile Of Snow

I digress.  Last week I reported that most of them were indeed missing.  As of today in this part of Johnson County it’s fair to say that over a third of them have reappeared.  In some places, boots have compacted the snow into an icy trench just wide enough for a couple feet to pass through.  So, including this new system of trenches, almost half the roads I’ve encountered now have a place to walk off the thoroughfare.

Almost none of these roads are major arterials.  Metcalf Avenue is a pedestrian’s vision of hell.  To move along Metcalf between 83rd street and Shawnee Mission Parkway has never been pleasant.  But now with no sidewalks and mountains of pushed up snow separating the contiguous parking lots into private valleys, walking to any destination is beyond unpleasant.  It’s life threatening.

Intersections are a mixed bag but the one at 83rd Street and Metcalf is terrifying.  The one at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Nall Avenue is a catastrophe.  So I chuckled a bit reading the article in the KC Star this morning.  Because the lack of walking lanes has been my bane, as I do not get snow days in my business.

So the exercise is keeping my legs strong and my belly from getting too large.  But what is the cortical doing to me as I go through the stress of weaving and bobbing away from oncoming vehicles that consider me an annoyance, their operators barely yielding way for me as I wave them on.  When will my sidewalks be back?

The accidental pedestrian is ready for spring.

Mike Hendricks Column   http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/20972

KC Star Front Page Story  http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1678089.html

Categories: The Accidental Pedestrian Tags: accidental pedestrian, marc mason, Personal Training, reality, snow, tap dancing, walking