Going Around in Circles

Yet another mention of my beloved Buy Nothing group for you this morning. I’ve been finding new homes for a stack of those ornately designed coloring books for adults. You know, the kind that are supposed to reduce stress but actually remind you just how poor your fine motor skills are. Little by little folks have been dropping by the house for contactless porch pick up. But the last two had a bit of an adventure.

The recipient informed me that she was now quarantined and would be getting a COVID test the next day. I offered to drop them off instead. That’s when the adventure began. I had her address, put in into my GPS app, and off I went.

In circles.

My route took me to the intersection of Thunder Hill and 175, off to the right into Blandair Park, past a construction site for a beautiful new destination playground and...around Sohap back onto Thunder Hill Road.

Huh?

And then around again, 175, Blandair, very cool playground - - when will that be open, I wonder? - - Sohap, and Thunder Hill Road. It was a lovely day. I had nowhere to be. And yet, this route did not seem ideal. I pulled over and re-read the message I had. Oh, her house was off of Farewell in Stevens Forest?

Heck, I know where that is. My GPS doesn’t, though.

I dropped off the coloring books. A friendly-faced woman tapped on the glass and signed “thank you”. It was, as the young folks say. “All good.”

Blandair Park has been developing in sections for so long over in my part of town. My husband talked about it when I moved here in 1999, of what was to come. Alas, when the first playground section was opened our daughter was almost too old to play there, but it’s still a great place for walks for all of us, especially during the isolation of the pandemic.

It means a lot to focus this much investment in amenities for families on the East Side of town. And I hope it will also bring folks from other parts of the county to see how we really live over here. It’s rather hard to keep this in mind during such a hard time.

But my little round-about in the park reminded me.

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