Me and My Shadow

We took the road less traveled on our two mile walk to the new noodle place for lunch, and were rewarded with many sights and insights along the way. The city trimmed back the weeds above the creek, so we could see the water rushing below the stone retaining wall. Not for the first time: who owns this little strip of steep rocky overgrown dirt? The high school has fenced off their portion, and added more chain link to define the ball field and the experimental garden. We were walking slower than usual, and spent a lot of time on the sidewalk studying this little ladybug universe. Dozens, hundreds, of creatures in all states of developing and development. I assume they were eating the aphids, but then the ants  attacked the ladybugs, rushing at them and biting their feet! It must have hurt because they would cringe. There is so much to see when you stand still. We looked in at the mushroom store—I didn’t know there were so many kinds of dried colorful fungi. Mushroom art, mushroom products, food, books. It smelled good in there. Onward past the truly unsightly construction projects by the bridge (see Extra). So much development, all at once, everything so big and lumpy. The buzzwords are “affordable housing” and “multi-use.”  We passed by houses we’ve seen for years only from a moving vehicle. Lunch was good, although by the time we got there the sun was out and the urge for good hot soup had passed. We had some anyway—big fat rice noodles and pork belly. You have to order your food from an iPad that they bring to the table; I guess that’s not big news in this world, but I’m going on record to say I don’t like it. In a little booth behind a glass panel a man and a woman are making wontons, rolling, filling and pinching dumplings and arranging them in perfect straight rows on large baking sheets. We walk back home. His device showed over 10,000 steps, while mine was around 7,000, but I got stars and fireworks nonetheless, even as I puzzled over how the heck we got those numbers when we were walking side by side.