more into bicycling these days, considering a move in which i may have a different route- my present route takes me out on the old highway, to a busy but newly made corner where the old highway runs up onto the new highway- and from there, past grasses parching and going to seed, up to the red-and-yellow corner where two red-and-yellow convenience stores and a red-and-yellow mcdonalds -they all have the same marketing trick- have ruined what used to be a beautiful area, a gateway to the shawnee. from there down a pretty glade to the wide-open arena parking lot, a wide expanse of pavement- occasionally full, as during basketball season, and, for example, tomorrow when it will be full of fireworks-watchers. when i was walking this was a wide-open meditative desert; on a bike it's time to notice the wind direction. the one steep hill is the artificial one by the entrance of the arena itself- with its welcome sign, its sculpted gardens, and a bench- as a walker i'd look forward to it.

today i found a flag on the highway, right where the old and new meet, at the turn-off lane. i'm not a flag-waver, but i picked it up and carried it in. why not? it's not meant to just sit there getting run over. in my office it's now just sitting there, looking over unwatered plants; i forgot to bring it home. the plants, i'll water, eventually...the pavement, though, will have to wait until november.