Whatever happened to Maypoles? Not that I ever danced around a maypole but they reportedly were a big deal in many places. I remember thinking it would be fun. Now we just have protests and riots on May 1st. Maybe if we went back to maypoles people could work off some of their anger in dancing and be able to discuss differences a little more constructively.

I've started new hours at work and don't have to be there till eight. I'm losing my Friday afternoons off but I just wanted to be able to be a little more relaxed in the mornings. I only got up half an hour later, took the long way around and took bus 17 so I could walk through the Sam Hughes neighborhood east of the University.

There was a seeing eye dog on the bus and his charge was a younger guy who seemed to know many of the people on the bus. He petted and hugged his dog a lot, which is nice. Often I see people with their seeing eye dogs who never seem to be that friendly. I suppose it depends on the owner as well as on the dog. A lady with three young kids got on and they all had to pet the dog. They were good kids, a quick pet and then they sat nicely in their seats.

Sam Hughes was in full bloom. There were fragrances and flowers everywhere. A man with a walker waved me by on a narrow sidewalk and said "women first, that's what my mother always said". He was quite old so I'm sure it was a long time ago but he looked so cheerful and happy to see the world despite the walker that his mother must have taught him some good things. I know that many people would consider that sexist but he was being friendly and I enjoyed being treated nice so I smiled back and said good morning. It's rare enough to see friendly cheereful people that it was refreshing.

Many bicyclists rode by on the way to the university. This is one of the major bike routes into the university and gets quite busy before the most popular class hours. I enjoyed walked past the beautifully landscaped homes. Most of them are fairly small compared to new housing but they are very nice with lovely plants in front. There was one house, though, that had a chain link fence all around the front yard and nothing but gravel in the front yard. It looked so sad and barren among the other houses.

Finally I headed into the university and picked up my pace since I had been taking it easy and needed to walk faster to get to work on time. Wouldn't you know! They had closed off another sidewalk and I had to take a detour to get across campus, but I made it in time. It will be nice when the mall is finally completely open. It's been interesting to watch the huge hole in the ground filling up but now I want to see the finished product and be able to walk down the mall without detours.