Flashes of Panic

I ran a loop this morning which I’ve done two or three times before, north of campus, down to Teele Square, then up Broadway towards home. Sometimes I go down to Davis Square and home by a different route.

The first time I came down Broadway, before I reached Powderhouse Circle I was stopped by a driver looking for Holland Street. That’s the connector between Davis Square and Teele Square, so I was able to send him down that way. This morning the driver who stopped me asked about Weston Street. I had no idea, of course.

A runner would appear to know where they were and would make an attractive person to ask for directions. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work that way. Odds are pretty good that the runner has covered some distance from the streets they know well. When I used to run out in the Hilltowns west of Northampton, the only roads I knew the names of were the ones I ran on, at least until I’d done the loop enough times to have explored several alternatives and peered at the map a few times. When I lived in Pennsylvania, and the towns were small, I used to consider it a poor run if it could be contained in one town. Sometimes I didn’t even know what town I was in, let alone how to get somewhere else.

Google Maps shows a Watson Street beyond Teele Square. He was headed that way; maybe that’s what he was looking for.

Now Playing: No Fear from Everything Changed by Abra Moore