Fixated On Stairs

Fixated On Stairs

It is a before and after type of blog.  Before you know, you have immersed yourself in summer, spending most of your time outdoors, and have made a pledge some time back in Winter, when one was Cabin-Fever-Bound  affected, and said:  “If I ever get out of here…….”  And had my favorite song blasting at the ice and windows and the future that was but 10 feet away from where I was sitting in front of the fire.  If I ever get out of here, I will leave my stuff at home.  “Don’t need it.”  And capped it off by identifying the song.  Hotel California by the Eagles.

And stuff I referred to was the computer and the smart phone and the digital glasses that played to theme of Reality TV.  So it has been a long summer and I have made good on my promise.  No cyber-world-gear and as a consequence, intended, he just stopped blogging.  Truth be told, and it seems it is an election season where I live, so the truth is lost in the glare of the day; what with the sun out and we have sunglasses and blinders.   


Truth or Dare, and I dare myself to come up with a good reason why I have actually stopped blogging.  Okay, once a month and its time for one more.  Another month as we step around Indian Summer where I live, and into October, when the rain and wind begin.

 

Before and After this blog, and there will be many things that just didn’t fit, and were left unsaid in the printed form.  But I mention to myself without repeating in verbal space, that this blog might be troubled in content and in intent.  Many days ago I was looking for something to inspire me, and to get a grasp of the reality that comes with not blogging over a prolonged period of time.  The people go away, and it is not a big thing in summer.  Like I said, was pledged to go outside but leave all my communication gear at home.  Into nature, and it is part of my nature to try to keep my promises.  Even to myself, and even when they are not verbalized or advertised or even clearly known, in terms of intent and outcome.  Have to be spontaneous and a natural occurrence, as much is possible.  Before and After, and before you know it, blogging is not something you really think about.

 

And when   it dawns and radiates and causes echo in that locked mind you have acquired, away from the influence of total strangers on the Internet, asking and demanding an answer.  “What’s up?”  Isolation is one thing, and before 2000 and the advent of cyber-nets and blogging as a possibility, and that invisible society and community that just seemed to grow and grow to the staggering degree that no matter where you went, they were there.  Embedded in the smart phone, and screens in Time Square and in the hollow-grams  that  were your friends.  Before and After, and have that in mind just now.  Before I started writing this blog, I was online and saw some pictures of stairs that just kept my attention and suddenly the After part was born.  And needed a place in my world.  Hence pictures and words and in my world, this is what I call a Stoney Blog.

 

Before and After is becoming more than I thought it would.  Before I got into the real issues that I wanted this blog to represent, I saw trouble on the horizon.  Pictures of stairs came from an internet site:  Let me provide the link and maybe this will make my problem area go away.  Give credit, where credit is due.  Link:  www.seattlestairwaywalks.com

 

Making more out of this than I really should, but it all started because I knew I should make time to blog, but  knowing that I was still experiencing the best part of Indian Summer  in my area, and knew I just had to get outside.  Take a Walk.  And that’s when I came across this site about Stairway Walks in Seattle.  Suddenly the interest and the content for a blog was born.  Started growing in my mind and finally a few days later, I am happy to just not go outside, and instead, write my one a month blog.  This one will be posted in September if I finish it today.  And I think I will.  Contrasting issues.  Go for a walk and at the same time,  blog.  Blogging means staying at home.  Going for a walk means being outside and not taking a device with me that could be used to accumulate and store words that would be the basis for the blog.

Do one thing or the other, but not both.  And certainly, not at the same time.  Hence, Before and After, but not both.

 

Back to the beginning.  Back to the future.  Walking and Blogging, but not at the same time.  But then I found a way.  No longer am I worried about stealing material from  an internet site, seattlestairwaywalks.com, and making it the focal point of a blog about stairs and walking and being outside during the Indian Summer that occurs in and around Seattle in September of most years.  From the exposure to my own locality and from the practice of walking around is material   enough for an original blog.  And this is what this happens to be.  A blog about being Fascinated By Stairs.  And once said, my mind travels and I go back and forth over terrain and thoughts that have become second nature to me.

 

At first I thought I would call this blog:  Adventures of the Stair Master.  Then decided I was back to where I started.  Worried about popular expressions and the branding by others and how they used the words, natural to me, but business to them, and Stair Master became a thing, and not a level or degree of those who grow up and are surrounded by stairs, and become good with such things as natural place markers for the ground they walk on, going from place to place.

 

Fascinated By Stairs, but not wanting to get in an argument about stair masters and exercise machines, and people who considered good at stairs.  Hence, stair matters.  Surely a simple misunderstanding and not meant to steal somebody elses material or ideas.  Great to be the first and have an internet site dedicated to Stairs and Walking and Exercise in the great outdoors.  Great to be the first to make a lot of money, on something called a Stair Master.  And then  I come along.  Stoney Blogger and he wants to make a point.  He is fascinated by stairs.  And would like to tell you why.  In fact, he wants to write a blog and tell you everything.  But it violates his code of conduct.

 

He had made a pledge to do one or the other.  Stay home and blog, (The Before Part ) , or go for a walk and leave all his electronic and communication gear behind.  This includes the paper and pencil he has in his backpack.  So he takes it out.  No books.  No e-reader.  No camera.  That is the After Part.  After he takes his walk and is true to his own code of conduct.  Keep it short.  One or the other, but not both.  So its true, stoney blogger is fascinated by stairs.  He lives in an area where there are many hills.  You could say, his backyard is nothing but one hill after another, carefully placed.

 

Going for a walk in and around Seattle is all about climbing hills and negotiating the ups and downs one finds along the way, during a normal outing.  Lose the car.  Walk.  And that requires knowing where all the aids to going up, and then getting down happen to be.  Stairs and elevators and this is how he developed such strong legs and calf muscles.  Was natural to get out of the city and go hiking in the foothills surrounding Seattle.  And if you go far enough,  you are actually mountain climbing.  And that’s a subject for a future blog.

 

For now,  I will try to keep this short.  Fascinated by Stairs.  Stair Master, but not the one you buy for fitness exercise.  Stare Master and am use to having people look at me as I do my routine on foot.  Up and down and all around.  Going for a walk.  In my neighborhood.