a walk to the flea market

During a walk from the flea market, what did we see? Short-ribs in the bike lane, oh fiddle-dee-dee.

Although bike lanes have been painted in area roadways, many bicyclists ('ped/alers') continue to exercise their preference for the comparable safety of the sidewalk -- which, of course, makes the sidewalks less safe for walking pedestrians. Some such bikers are unarguably mobile with their machines in a jungle-boogy sort of way, while others are ready to whine and argue that they will be hurt, even on the sidewalk, if pedestrians won't sidle.

Proceeding down SE Monterey Road from Kingswood Terrace Road, the flea-market hiker passes the "at your own risk" wooden foot bridge that leads to 10th Street and further along many blocks to Florida Street (which has one restaurant now so that 'a restaurant on FL Street' can be easily recommended if asked) and henceforth to Johnson Street and the existing city USPO. The flea-market hiker passes the YMCA on Monterey Road, the airport, crosses Dixie Highway and arrives at the intersection with U. S. 1 (also known as the 'Federal Highway'), then stops and stares at a crosswalk at a bushy blind curve lacking pedestrian signal-sign/button where car drivers turn west onto the FH. (A mid-roadway concrete island has the pedestrian signal-sign/button, as do all other crosswalk settings at the major intersection.)

U. S. 1 has plazas and malls of many kinds of businesses, and the Humane Society Thrift Shop has be found to visit another day. All kinds of small junk can be found in the bike lanes, some of it perhaps intentionally placed--a lump of asphalt on SE Ocean Boulevard that might warp a bicycle tire; a wire, PET 'bumper' bottles, data discs, screws/nuts/bolts, and so forth along U. S. 1. The sign directing people to the flea market is large; there are stalls as well as booths-in-buildings, and this year's Martin County Fair could be seen in the background off Dixie Highway.

Returning to Kingswood condo complex via the Dixie Highway, the day's dark clouds apparently dissuaded large crowds from visiting the fairgrounds, but there was plenty of space to enjoy the midway rides and other attractions for the small number of people who were in the fairgrounds.

Walking along Dixie Highway only a short distance from SE Monterey Road regained, small short-ribs in the bike lane had everyone's attention. They were cut from the carcass of some very small/baby animal and were covered with red ants. Flashback to this month's issue of 'Archaeology' magazine which shows a photo of a nappy-headed skull from New Mexico's Fort Craig (p. 41, www. archaeology.org) as black youths who usually use the Dixie Highway sidewalk ambled past. The intersection of DH with Monterey Road had a black-fuzzy piece of fabric lying in one crosswalk (which is the reason I decided to walk along U. S. 1 instead, earlier).

There had been a moment of sadness viewing a glossy but small black-winged butterfly stuck to the sidewalk along U. S. 1 near the Humane Society, which I picked up still alive and placed in some grass near a car dealership together with tiny green Bradford pears I was carrying. The return to the condo made the day more bizarre, as dinnertime TV featured such verbal lines as "...you have to get under their hide..." and a Topix.net forum post with an entry titled 'What do you think about Mohammed?' that featured the line "...Please Watch peace TV...".

Obviously, the day's droppings make this blog more predictable.

However, also observed in the flea market proper were two of the PVC 'baby-over-a-bucket' containers, both containing golf balls for sale, near the Martin County Book Depot; one bucket was green-tinted with a label telling us that the original contents were pickles.

Same as last year, police cars with flashing lights marked the entrance to the Martin County Fair -- it was difficult to know whether there was some kind of incident or not.