Monday, April 23, 2012

Walking Around Lake Monona - well, not quite

I love my work schedule. 4; 10 hour days. This means I have Fridays off to write, exercise, get stuff done, waste time . . . you know. So this past Friday I decided to go on a walk. A long walk. A nine-mile walk, to be exact. I had ambitions of walking around Lake Monona, but a train got in the way, and I turned back after going about halfway around. I probably could have made it all the way, but the train sapped me of my soul for the day. You think it's tough waiting for a train to go by while you're in your car? Try doing it as a pedestrian. I was sorely tempted to hop up one side and down the other, then I thought 1) I could die (not likely, seeing the train probably wasn't goint much more than 12 MPH or thereabouts), 2) I wasn't really in any hurry, and 3) this is Madison - someone will call the cops and I'll have an escort waiting for me on the other side when I hopped off. So I didn't. Just stood there and watched. Truth be told, there was some interesting artwork spray-painted on the side (genuinely good work, no lie!), but not enough to keep me entertained the whole time. Suddenly, the childhood notion I had of becoming a hobo lost all of its romanticism.

Anyway, after letting the train past (like I was going to stop it, huh?), I carried on my meandering way only to see the Madison police - three cars worth of them - harassing some homeless guy near Proudfit. Good thing I didn't freeload!

I carried on toward Monona Terrace and spotted this beauty spray-painted (see a theme here?) on the bike path along John Nolen Drive. My oldest son (who routinely runs around the lake - he's a distance runner, along with his younger brother, something my asthma doesn't understand) told me he thought it was a blue ghost with a halo. I was thinking more . . . biologically. You can decide for yourself. Whatever it is, I love its surreal simplicity. Creepy and cute at the same time: