February 2006

from 1998 to 2001, doc and i lived in a small rental house near lemmon and lovers’, by love field. we were in a neighborhood full of little one-car-garage, 800-square-foot, vinyl-siding houses with giant backyards. just across midway from us was the ultrawealthy neighborhood of bluffview. bluffview folks had numerous luxuries, including a very hilly neighborhood full of giant old trees; huge custom-built houses set way back on huge lots spaced widely apart from each other; long gravel driveways that wound through an acre or so of trees at the front of each lot; a narrow main road that was paved but had no sidewalks and no curbs — the asphalt just blended in to the dirt and trees by the side of the road, which always lends a rustic out-in-the-woods feel; hardly any traffic; and sometimes not even being able to see your neighbors’ houses due to hills and trees in the way. it had nothing of the ostentatious mcmansion gated-community we-have-a-pond-and-fountain-so-keep-the-fuck-out feeling that seems to be so popular today, but instead was just unassuming, out of the way, and if you didn’t see the little road off midway that led into the community you’d never even know it was there. anyway, *i* knew it was there and i loved to jog through that area. i usually went from my house out to midway, across into bluffview, around and through the neighborhood, back out to midway on a different road, then another 3/4 mile or so through a sort of bluffview-adjunct neighborhood that was also quite large, beautiful and wealthy, but with a lot fewer hills and trees, then i turned around and came the same way back home. although i was always vigilant of my surroundings, of course, i felt relatively safe on my jogging path while alone. […]