Streets Of Glendale

I've begun to get something of a feel for the streets that it appears I'll be walking the rest of the time I'm in the neighborhood where I presently dwell, and it's really rather pleasant. A couple of times when I've been plodding along past the high school on my way home after a late night, I've been struck by a potent feeling of contentment with that main road off of which I turn for the side street my apartment is on. Often it's very quite, peaceful and lightly traveled if not entirely devoid of activity. The people who are on the streets both day and night often look as if they have considerably more going for them than their counterparts in my past neighborhoods. Someone like me walking around this area may not be probable cause in itself as it was in North Hollywood.

It's not entirely good though, or at least not entirely straight forward. That high school I have adopted as the one of my community. I feel a kind of a stake in its fortunes as they rise and fall. The other night it appeared as if they hosted a football game, and worked-up students swarmed over the streets. I confess that it feels a bit odd to be around students like that. High school was a while ago for me, and I'm not sure how far removed I am from their station in life. It's just a peculiar thing to be there at the same time and in the same place as people still consumed with quandaries like PE and rounding up dates for all-important school dances. I wasn't any good at either thing, I ought to note. Still, I feel positively about the school and its students. By all appearances, they seem as upstanding and well-balanced as any I could ever have called my peers.

Possibly the neatest walk I've had in some time transpired a few days ago. In Arizona, the weather is not a subject of considerable interest for prognosticators, by which I mean that the conditions of any particular day are apt to vary very little from any of the days surrounding it. It's clear skies all year long, with blistering temperatures from spring to early fall and moderate temperatures during the rest. A few days of hard rain are sprinkled in there. That's about the extent of it. What they don't get, at least not in the Phoenix area, is fog. Early Sunday morning I was out and about, and was blown away by the fog which blanketed the surface of the Earth. I've seen it a bit in LA, but this was as amazing to me as any of it. It pains me to admit that I was just a hair away from the much-celebrated gentleman who probably exaggerates the significance of two rainbows gracing the sky at the same time.

My survey of the neighborhood shops goes on. I have found there to be no reliable dollar stores nearby as yet, but remain hopeful on that point. There are plenty of restaurants around, with a tolerable diversity of regional and ethnic cuisines. Even better, there seem to be some solid late night options near my place, a grocery store with ready-to-go foods and an intriguing Mexican place being among them. It only remains now for the rest of the world to draw closer, and there will be no downside to living here.