traveling

     The things I see as I walk along the street--that's heaven to me.
Or is it? What would be the point of living on a street if it wasn’t heaven? Right now my street is cold, white, and full of snow. It is beautiful but it is not heaven. I live on a one way street that is always seems to be  going the wrong way. There is one neighbor next door.  Although not a bad neighbor, I have no delusions of us having neighborly barbeques. He is a flatlander and has been here barely a year.  There is a group home across the street from him. The residents there are good people but I have no illusions about what kind of neighbors they are and I won’t be borrowing a cup of sugar from them either. Next to the group home, there is a small street that has a name but nothing on it. Not one house or business. I can’t figure out why they named the street. If you cross the street there is the back side of a string of churches, one of which is mine. The other church is the one where all the mothers-to-be get their WIC vouchers. The police station used to be there as well located between the two churches. The town has grown despite Augusta’s best efforts to stop it and we had to move the police station down the street to a larger building. A counseling center is there now. It’s pretty busy usually. I am not sure that is a good thing. Across from the dirt parking lot which services all three buildings, there are a few old, white, multi-family homes. The families come and go as their financial situations dictate. They get crabby when the overflow from the two churches park in their driveways. Ask me how I know that.
      As I continue on down the street I come up on a B & B that is called the Freedom House. I never see anyone there though. They must really be free. The owners got motivated and decided to paint the house yellow. Some of the neighbors are probably still in shock. As I walk along I wave and I chit chat with them all, even though I do not know their names, I try to be neighborly. Across from the Freedom House is a little secondhand gift shop that sells odds and ends. I believe the lady of the house may be an alternative religion as there are an awful lot of references to the Goddess on her minivan.  I don’t ask though because it really isn’t my business.
   I come next to a very large misshapen parking lot which services the strip mall which fronts the Main Street and has the river on the other side of it. The parking lot winds around and comes out between the Center Theater and the chiropractor’s office. The Center Theater has been there for a long time and was even closed down for a period of time until some enterprising people came along and raised the money to renovate it.  Every weekend there is some kind of concert, movie, or play going on there. Friday night the cars line up along the side of the road with patrons who don’t want to walk the distance from the parking lot.
      Next to the theater is Mr. Paperback Bookstore. The sidewalk in front of it is all cracked and uneven. They never have the books I want.
Then comes the radio station office which always makes me wonder because every couple of years it changes its format. Right now it is a liberal talk show format. My county is the only Republican county in the state and I can’t imagine they are making too much money from sponsors. Maybe the owners like a challenge.
      As I walk on, I pass by the Observer, where I work and I see all my coworkers busy at work. I wave and mouth the words, “Hi Guys.” I continue on down the street and pass over the bridge out of habit looking over the edge. I see where the people from some long ago forgotten construction job tossed their debris over the side into the water. I guess it was cheaper than taking it to the dump. I am now in the center of town and can go northwest on to “Greenville," which is even smaller than Dover. I can go north to Canada although why I would want to do that escapes me. I can go south to Bangor and a place where there is lights, stores, and people; enough people to lose yourself in the crowd, or make your own crowd, if you choose. Not like here, where if I sneeze then my neighbor friend comes down the road, bringing me tissues. For now I am here, but tomorrow…I can go anywhere I please.