Unavoidable Circumstances

The little undergrads are back again in State College. The peaceful quite has disappeared. Roads are much busier, stores are busy, Wal-Mart is crazy busy, and the most annoying part is that they walk around talking on their cell phones without noticing any of the world around them—especially bikers. This is most frustrating while biking on campus. They walk 15 abroad across the sidewalk/bike path/road, see me coming, and still remain fixed in their formation assuming that someone else in the bunch will move for me or that I’ll opt off the sidewalk/bike path/road onto grass to get around them. Jori has this problem solved with the use of a bike bell. She “dings” and they part like Moses and the Red Sea. It is really an amazing thing to observe. I, on the other hand, can be heading at 20 plus miles per hour at a group, but apparently that isn’t intimidating or frightening. However, a little “ding ding” equates to absolute authority of the path. Huh??? I wonder what response I would get if I put a small air horn on the front of my bike? Hmmm. Perhaps that would bea bit overboard and then they would just be frightened in their tracks, which would leave me in the same predicament. Drat.

I usually stay away from Wal-Mart as a matter of principle and of practicality. I don’t like supporting “big-box-mart” if I have a chance, and quite frankly I find shopping there to be stressful. Perhaps I find it stressful because of the clutter, the people, or the constant bombardment of advertisement which they do so well there. I especially make it a rule to stay away from Wal-Mart the first few weeks of the new semester. All the things I don’t like about Wal-Mart are amplified to the nth degree and then some. I have been quite happy with myself for restraining from Wal-Mart for at least the last 6 months. However, as luck would have it I have had to make 3 trips to Wal-Mart this past week for work related items. It has pained me greatly each trip. Strolling around the parking lot looking for a parking spot, dodging the clutter and the people inside the store, waiting for ever in line to pay for things. Man what a headache.

One thing that I have noticed is that the undergrads are looking younger and younger. Not only them either. I have long thought that college football players looked so old and mature. Maybe it is the size, but this year, they look like a bunch of young undergrads to me albeit large ones. Unfortunately, this appearance leaves me to conclude that is not they who are getting younger, but I who am getting older. I don’t particularly feel older. I can still out run most of them on the frisbee field, and my parts still function without additional creeks and stiffness. I suppose I am loosing hairs on the old noggin at a fairly steady rate, but I can deal with that...or at least I'm emotionally used to it. But, noticing how “young” the undergrads look this year is a bit of a downer.