No arms, no legs, no problem

On my walk earlier this week I noticed an odd similarly between a couple of passerbys. First, I passed a man with no arms who was out for a walk. I don't often see people with no arms. He was wearing a messenger bag across his chest (I guess a backpack or purse wouldn't work very well) and I wondered how it got it on. I guess he just stuck his head through the strap and shimmied through.

On the other side of the river I saw a pigeon with only 1 leg. It was hopping around a pecking at the ground just like any other pigeon, not at all inhibited by his lack of a leg.

I guess the message for the day was that if a man with no arms and a pigeon with one leg can get out and exercise around the river, everyone else should be able to as well. No excuses for not exercising!

birds flock together, regardless of their feather

Next to the MIT boat house, a square, wooden raft floats in the water (think of the raft Tom Sawyer used to float down the Mississippi). I'm not sure what its intended purpose is, but at the moment it's a place of rest for various species of birds. The first time I walked by, its inhabitants included a seagull, a duck, and 2 of those black sea birds. They looked slightly different so I think one was male and one was female. Talk about diversity! Each bird was content on its own little piece of the raft, even though it was next to other types of birds. Earlier this week I walked by and there were many more black birds on the raft, however there was still a seagull resting among them. We should learn from the birds on the raft. Even though we're all different we can still live in harmony with one another. This demonstrates that lunchtime walks are not just healthy and entertaining, but educational as well.

when push comes to shove

As I was walking across the bridge I saw a man on Memorial Drive getting his picture taken in front of the Boston skyline. He was holding both arms out with his hand up, perpendicular to his arms, and his palms facing out. At first I could not figure out what he was doing. I assumed it had something to do with the picture and after walking a little ways across the bridge, I figured it out - he was "pushing on" both the John Hancock tower and the Pru.

As cheesy as it is to take a picture "holding up" the leaning tower of Pisa, it makes sense. It's falling over. It needs to be held up. But do the Hancock and Pru need to be pushed apart? Is there anything special about touching them both at once? There was a group of Asian tourists laughing at him. You know that's a bad sign.

quack

Since not much goes on during the winter along the Charles, I thought I'd discuss what I call the "white duck colony." I'm not sure if they're technically ducks or geese, but one of the only places I've ever seen white "ducks" with orange beaks and feet is along the railroad tracks by the BU bridge. These ducks look like the one in the Aflac commercial. They're as big as the canadian geese, but much prettier. It's a shame they live under a bridge with homeless people. They should be in a lagoon surrounded by lush vegetation.

Rich and I tried to look up what type of ducks or geese they are, but we've had no luck so far. We've discovered that a farm-raised breed of duck is white, but it's only used for eating and seems smaller than the ducks in the colony. The search continues.

wrong way driver

Given the number of one way streets around Boston, we've all seen wrong-way drivers, however given that this is a slow time of year for unusual events along the river, I'll take what I can get.

This wrong-way driver was heading east on the westbound side of memorial dr. I'm assuming he or she did not realize memorial dr. is a divided highway, with two lanes on each side. I guess they also did not notice that all the cars were parked facing them and there were cars headed towards them in both lanes...

Conveniently, the wrong-way driver happened to head the wrong way right in front of the two state police officers that are stationed outside the sloan school construction. I thought they might yell at him, which would have been exciting, however the police officers stopped traffic and allowed the offender to turn the car around and head off in the right direction. Such a happy ending.

appropriate exercise clothing

Nothing very exciting has happened on my lunch time walks the past few months. It has been more rainy so I haven't walked as much and there just are not as many people out and about now that it's colder. So, in lieu of a specific observation, I thought I'd rant about all the various inappropriate exercise clothing I've seen over the last few months.

First, there are the people who are inappropriately dressed for the weather. It was in the upper 30s and a girl was running in a tank top and shorts. A few times it's been super-windy and quite chilly yet people are out there in t-shirts, running pants and nothing else. No gloves. No earbands or hats. I guess they're just tougher than me.

Then there are the people who are inappropriately dressed for exercising. I've seen people running in jeans, cargo pants, fashion sneakers or casual shoes, polo shirts...I hope these people aren't going back to work right after their runs.

Finally, there are the people who are just exercising inappropriately. Across the Charles from MIT there was a man who was running in these little circles (I think he was also dressed inappropriately in cargo pants). There are miles of running paths so there is really no need to run in little circles. I guess he just liked the area. And then you get the people who like to think they're running but they're really not. Instead they're doing some weird movement that involves power-walking on their toes while shuffling their feet. I know you've seen them too.

Anyway, hopefully something exciting happens soon or else I'll be obligated to post another rant and that would just take this blog in a whole different direction.

Helicopter maneuvers

Today as I was walking past the MIT rowing pavilion I noticed a helicopter flying low over the Charles. I've see low-flying 'copters there before so I was not too surprised, but then as I approached the Harvard Bridge I noticed the police had closed it to pedestrian and car traffic. The helicopter circled three times from the rowing pavilion to the bridge and back and then took off, though I could still hear it nearby. The police then let the people and cars cross, but as I got to the intersection two officers took up posts on the sidewalk on either side of the bridge. No one was walking there at the time so I couldn't tell if pedestrian traffic was prohibited again. It seemed like if they hadn't already shut down the sidewalk they were going to do so soon.

The thing about our lunchtime observations is that we very rarely are able to find out why something happens. Instead we witness strange events that leave us confused. I'm assuming the helicopter maneuvers were planned since the state police seemed to be timing everything, but I have no idea why the 'copter was flying like that. Was it looking for something or someone? Inspecting the bridge? Practicing for an emergency? I suppose I could have asked the officers, however I would have felt weird, especially because I wasn't planning to cross the bridge so the sidewalk closure was of no relevance to me. This will have to be another one of those strange events we ponder for the rest of our lives. Or at least the rest of the day.