April 2023

As an American that went through elementary school in the 1970s, I learned that when one assumes the role of pedestrian on an American roadway, you walk facing traffic. So, in our U.S. ways, that’s the left side of the road.

It no longer seems to be a common theme amongst some folks here in our little development.

Early morning walks are a popular pastime here at Rancho Cancion and quite often I’ll see several of our neighbors out for a walk when I’m out for a stroll. The timing gets earlier as the sun gets hotter here in the Sonoran Desert, so right now folks are generally walking before 10:00 AM.

Most people walk as I described, facing traffic, along the left side of the road. I’ve noticed some of the younger folks (that have properly stayed off my lawn) walk on the right, or wrong, side of the road. Because I generally avoid people whenever possible, I cross the road so we don’t end up meeting face to face. That’s just not my jam.

Then we have the older neighbor who uses walking sticks. She generally walks on the right, or wrong, side of the road but today she decided to really keep me guessing and walked down the middle of the street.

I had to double my cadence so I could get around that chaos quickly. It boosted up my calorie burn for the stroll.

After spending several months on my own Mastodon instance, I’ve decided to move to one of the larger servers. This particular Mastodon instance has 17K users and is focused on tech. I like the community, know several of the folks over there and am looking forward to more robust interactions on this newish platform.

I’m am now on hachyderm.io. Please feel free to follow me there.

As I do research for my storm chasing trip coming up next month, I’m getting enthralled with videos like this one about The Great Plains. It’s such a fascinating area to me.