TGIF

For all the institution's horn-blowing about being Sustainable, and, Green: I seem to be the only pedestrian around my new place, something that's been particularly aggravating this week. After work Monday, a boot toe's collision with uneven sidewalk ended by badly bruising both my knees and the palm of one hand. The next morning, invisible ice on a campus sidewalk sent me flying; the crash landing was onto the most painful of the previous knee injuries. Well, just one kneecap this time... but all very maddening, in that it happened on work premises, and that my knee hurt so much that it took a while to manage getting up.

This sidewalk begins at exactly the spot where the bus drops me mornings, and from there it leads to a convenient side entrance. The sidewalk also has the slightest degree of downward incline, which was where I'd gone sailing. So next day I tried a much longer (but flat) way, via sidewalks at the two major streets adjoining the buildings. No falls that day, but going the distance of just two blocks took nearly 15 minutes of negotiating pavement covered by ice.

Aside from parking lots, maintenance is indeed spotty. And I don't expect to ever hear a word from the building contact I e-mailed about the condition of the sidewalks.

Something that really gets me: one day, the snow and (subsequent mud) will be gone, and I'll want a nice solitary walk outside the factory. Which is just when the grounds will be full of walkers: administrative assistants who've changed to athletic shoes and puffed out their chests, striding purposefully to show they are becoming healthy, and doing their all to save their employer medical costs.

Meanwhile, I've lost track of the odd weather this week, but at some point, a shiny layer of thin ice appeared on every snow pile in town. It's lent my surroundings just a soupçon more surreality than before...

Not snow blobs on those trees, as it might seem, but buds—

Art budgets do exist to be used up (and what I've seen so far has been as bad).

Medium is message; rusted wheels and shredded plastic = recycling?

That's one small step for man; one giant leap for corporate expansion.