After the world shut down I began working from home.

It was kind of nice to not have to be anyplace. To dress however I wanted. To cook homemeals at my place and feed bits of it to my dog Toby. But the best thing I loved about working from home were the long walks I took.

I walked the few dozen blocks around my house over a thousand  times during this time and I never grew bored of it. Always something unnoticed before to see or hear. Always being greeted by novel ideas and feelings.  Walking around my neighborhood like this was probably the healthiest thing I did during this time.

A thought I had on more than a couple occasions during these walks was the difference between walking in this neighborhood as opposed to the one I grew up in. My parents raised me in the kind of neighborhood that drove you straight into your house. Liminal space. Just a conduit to get home and put something on a screen. I wondered just what about the cul-de-sac impressed such a mood. 

By the time it turned out the pandemic wasn't going to be anything like 

Stephen King

, I visited one of my friends who lives in a fairly well-to-do residential area around town. I remember helping him walk his dogs and noticing something. I didn't tell him of course, but the next time I walked around my neighborhood I realized what made the walks around there so much nicer than a typical American suburban development.

My neighborhood wasn't just housing for the people that live there, but rather a space that brought all kind of people in and through it. Some people visited the cafe nearby or did things like play

tennis

or frisbee at the park. Some people just came here just to walk! Neighbors worked on their yards. And people extended their commute time by going the long route through here. Actually having a place like that breeds a diversity of things to see.

Let me tell you about one fascinating thing I saw though. It was a house with five red Priuses.