April 9, 2015

April 9, 2015

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader, 

I rode my bicycle all the way from my home to downtown Chico. On my way through the park, I noticed my tire had gone flat and I walked over Main Street to the bicycle-repair shop. They couldn’t immediately fix it and I had to come back and pick it up later. Consequently, I had to walk the streets back home, which was quite a walk. Since I haven’t walked the streets like that for a long time, it was a refreshing experience. 

When one walks, one contacts contingencies which one otherwise misses or remain oblivious of. For instance, I walked by a bush with flowers that smelled delicious. I already caught the smell two houses away, because a soft breeze blew the perfume into my direction. As I was about to cross the street, a homeless person, who was talking out loud with himself, crossed the street, while the light was still on red. Because he suddenly started walking, I almost also started walking too, but I could luckily hold myself back. A car nearly missed him and honked loudly at him, but the disheveled man didn’t even seem to notice. As I still stood there waiting for the light to turn green, he crossed the street again and created an identical situation. 

At one point, I had to cross the street because the side-walk on my side of the road had stopped. A whole bunch of cars drove by, but one driver saw I was trying to cross the street and stopped. I could see his friendly face. He waved. I thankfully waved back at him. This was an uplifting moment on my hour long journey back home. He made a difference for me that day.

 

I enjoyed looking at the houses and gardens. The way people arrange their yards says a lot about who is living there. One garden contained a self-made art piece, which looked very nice. It was one of those rocks found locally. It was sculpted like an egg with a dragon coming out of it. It was done very skillfully and it was placed inconspicuously among many of other rocks. 

Other gardens, like the houses, were dilapidated and were not getting any attention from the owner. Gardens around apartment buildings are boring. The bushes and hedges were cut in uniform fashion and there seemed to be something mandatory about the perfectly mowed lawns. However, many vines were crawling over the fences and I enjoyed looking at this invasion.

Other interesting features were drive-ways and garden paths. At one house, there was only grass. At the street side there were big wooden poles with a heavy, rusty chain connecting them. The poles were about three feet above the ground and five feet apart. Someone had hit one of these poles. The pole that had been stabilized with a huge piece of concrete now lay exposed at the entrance of the driveway. Next to it was a big whole. It had been like that for a long time, since the gap was overgrown with many weeds.

At another house someone had recently made a path with pavers leading from the mailbox to the front porch. The mailbox was attached to a metal structure that looked like the Eifel Tower. There were not enough pavers on the path, they were spread too far apart and they were too small. However, the sand around the pavers was raked with great perfection. Anyone visiting here would feel obligated to jump from one paver to the next. 

Then, I came by a house with three fancy cars in front of it. Two men in suits and with sunglasses and a woman in a white dress with long blond hair were smoking cigarettes standing near these expensive cars, The two men looked irritated and the woman looked submissive, but also defiant. I had to pass them closely, but looked away. I felt sorry for the woman and believed she was oppressed or abused by these men. They were territorial and I wasn’t going to look their way. I felt relief after I had passed them.

When I had almost reached my street, there was a father with his young son coming my way. As the pavement was not very wide and as the child was riding a small bicycle, I stepped into the gutter to let them pass. Although he was able to keep steady, the kid enjoyed meandering from the left to the right side of the pavement. When we passed, the father gave me a smile. He was proud of his son and I could see how much he loved his child, who was showing off a little bit. I felt good when I finally reached my street. On the corner was an old rusty car on the drive way, which will probably never run anymore.