My Midland Avenue

There are like twenty Midland Avenues around here. Ours happens to be special. For the past year, we've had our gripes about how it's not pedestrian friendly. It has no sidewalk or even a shoulder, in fact the shoulder is used for parking, so your choice is to walk the fine strip of road between the parked cars and traffic or to cross back and forth (which we'd have to do twice) and watch the traffic, because people drive like lunatics. Speaking of loonies, a crazy middle aged guy used to approach Alex and then just talk to him about his mother, but I digress.

In addition to non-pedestrian friendliness, our side of the street is just plain ghetto. Of course I don't mean that ghetto. Thing is, there's trash and a lot of it, always lying around. It's just all out there, from baby's diapers, to chicken scraps, to ironing boards. So there are always ungodly things lying around on that side of the street, and thus I make a big deal to avoid it.

Lo and behold, tonight as Alex and I are walking home, we get to the sidewalk part, when this young woman, from the opposite side, begins screaming and waving a serrated kitchen knife at a car. My mind suddenly flips to episodes of "Cheaters."

Yada yada yada -- I'm completely engrossed. And just as I'm witnessing all this before my eyes, I walk right onto some crap. The day I let down my guard and and what do you know? Lesson? Keep walking, call the police, don't rubberneck, and especially don't forget to mind the road! There's crap everywhere!