Wow. When you sit down and figure out
the number, it's really, really high.
Now, before I get into anything, just
let me say the number to which I'm referring isn't anything
important. It's not Earth-shattering, it's not deep or
consequential, and it's not a number that will change anyone's life,
much less your own. It''s just one of those numbers that popped into
my very weird head.
That being said, Loraine and I are
coming up on the 13th anniversary of living in our current
apartment. As I may have mentioned in a blog about a year ago, it's
actually the place in which I've lived the longest my entire life,
which is saying something. Of course, one of the reasons we've lived
there so long is that it has a perfect location. We both get to walk
to work, we have (almost) everything we need within a radius of a few
blocks, and apart from neighbors who like to light campfires, set off
fireworks, and use leaf lowers all day long, it's been a great place
to live.
We live three blocks from where I work,
and I hike along that three-block long patch of sidewalk quite a bit.
So when I was making the hike home from work yesterday I started to
wonder—just how many times HAVE I walked upon that sidewalk? So I
started thinking (which, as we all know, can be a dangerous thing),
and this is what I've figured out.
On average, I make two round trips a
day, either to & from work or heading downtown. I actually think
it may be higher than that, but let's go with with the average of
twice a day, just to be safe. That's 730 trips down that sidewalk a
year. I've lived in my current apartment 13 years, so if my math is
correct (always a dubious affair) I've walked down the same piece of
Front Street sidewalk 9,490 times.
9,490 times!!!
My mind, for some reason, can't wrap
itself around that number. I mean, it knows that I've walked down
the sidewalk, past the lilac trees and the lawyer's office and Peter
White Public Library a lot, but almost 10,000 times? That's just too
high of a number to comprehend, for some reason. Yet it's true.
Even if I haven't noticed it myself I've walked down the same patch
of sidewalk almost 10,000 times in the past 13 years. And without
realizing it I've probably absorbed more information about the walk
that I've realized. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if I could make
the entire walk blindfolded and know exactly where I was or exactly
which crack in the sidewalk way coming up.
That's something I'd actually like to
try some day, except for the idiots driving through the 4-way stop
sign at Arch or skidding through the intersection at Ridge. Close
off the streets and I'm sure I could walk to work no problem at all.
It's funny; I'm sure there are many
other things I've done more almost 10,000 times in my life, and
haven't given those a second thought. But for some reason, I now
know I've trod upon the same sidewalk for 9,940 times. And on that
note, I must wrap this up, and get ready for the first leg of my
9491st round trip.
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