Peoria, Arizona during the COVID-19 pandemic, August 2020

It's August 19th, 2020, and I just got home from pedaling around Peoria, which is a suburb of Phoenix. The whole world is living through an interesting time, and as I recall that's a famous curse. And speaking for myself, it feels as if the whole world is holding its breath, and waiting. Ride along with me.

Got your bicycle helmet? Your sunscreen? Your bottle of water? Your hand sanitizer? Your eye protection? Your mask? Good, then let's go.

I stumble out every morning and travel north by northwest. Since it's morning I like to have my back to the sun, and generally speaking in the Phoenix area, the sun is to the south. So the ride out is more enjoyable than the ride back, especially as the temperature goes from the high eighties to the 100s within the first couple hours of the day.

I've been pedaling around this area for several years now, and I gotta tell ya, it's quiet. The side streets in the Phoenix area have always been quiet, but since about April sometimes the loudest sound when I stop for a drink of water is the birds, and sometimes a leaf blowing along the street.

By the way, I wear my mask whenever I might be getting close to anyone, so I mask up at intersections, and as I build up speed, and distance, I let the mask go, and it hangs from an ear. It's under the strap for my bike helmet, so it won't blow away, and I can mask up in seconds. But mostly during my morning rides I'm more than six feet away from people, usually more than 100 feet. I still measure distances in my mind as golf shots, and mostly I'm a good strong wedge shot away from anyone.

I've been following my doctor's advice for years now, taking my meds, eating healthy, getting plenty of exercise, and when the vaccine becomes available I'll get it, but I won't like it. No, it's not a lack of confidence in science, it's just that I'm one of those tough guys who gets light-headed around needles. I have a friend who will go with me!

OK, the sun is getting high enough that we can comfortably turn around and head east again. Thank you for riding along with me!

If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please consider subscribing to History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me
Read more