My new neighborhood is spectacular. The surrounding architecture is old and wonderful, there are plants growing out of everything, and people have stone walls and brick driveways. I am pleased by its texture.
There is a certain amount of sketchiness to the area as well, which makes things interesting. There's a few bars and liquor stores down the street, so I see people walking drunk a lot, with or without booze in hand. A major med school is also right down the street, so the rampant drunks and med students make for an interesting pedestrian mix.
Speaking of sketchiness, I almost (not really) got beat up taking this picture of the red car. I've passed it a few times and have admired the beaten old car for being so well-situated! So, I finally brought my camera to take its picture, and one nanosecond after I snapped this, the dude that lives there roared into the driveway on his Harley. He was a scary big biker dude with a beard, and his face was all twisted and displeased-looking! He saw me and my camera, saw me and my camera turn around to get the hell out of there, and then he yelled out an accusatory, "HEY!"
I just kept walking like nothing had happened, and prayed that I wouldn't hear his Harley fire up to follow me. I made it out of there with no scratches, luckily, and here I am one pretty picture wealthier.

Psychedelia update: my novice putzing with Illustrator, which has appeared on the web and in a magazine at the very small size of 4 inches by 8 inches, will now torment me publicly in large format. The orange and pink one is being blown up into 2 foot (!) by 4 foot (!) BANNERS that will hang at an utterly notorious art fair this weekend. The part that I am truly horrified by is the crappy "pattern" that is supposed to fill "Blast" but that I didn't figure out how to do until the second (green) piece. The rest of it I can live with. However, I did literally go blind working on this, and as for the Jimi Hendrix poster, well...

Incidentally, if you'd like to party on the 6th, let me know.

KC Transportation Authority, Boo!

Since my move, I've become creative with how I get to work. Should I take Southwest Trafficway, to the highway, because it could be fastest, even though there's a no-left-turn-between-7am-and-9am sign at SW Trafficway, and the highway is likely to be clogged? Or, should I take Broadway all the way down, and gamble on traffic lights, and more potential cloggedness?

Or, could I take the bus and not have to worry about driving?

No, sadly. The romance of public transportation does not exist in Kansas City, even with its new Max Bus, which is capable of taking me from sort of near where I live to sort of near where I work.

Now, I am willing to walk a little out of my way to the bus stop (this even sounds nice!). I am also willing to hang out at the skeezy bus-stop/ liquor store intersection of 39th and Main to board the metropolitan beast. I am willing to wait for other stops, put up with mysterious or shady characters, and take a little extra time from my morning for the betterment of the environment, the life of my car, and not having to deal with traffic....

And here's the big fat But:
Taking the bus is more expensive than driving to work.


TO DRIVE:
I have no idea how many miles per gallon my car gets, but estimating it gets 22 miles to the gallon (a low guess?), with gas at a high 4 dollars per gallon, that would equal approximately $0.18 spent each mile.
My work is approximately (rounded up) 5 miles from my new abode. So that's $0.90, and $1.80 round trip. So, that was a high guess, the lowest I came up with (yes, I did the word problem more than once - what is wrong with me?) was: $0.60 one-way and $1.20 two ways.

THE BUS:
$1.25 one way!! $2.50 round trip!! What!? I guess the bus is more cost-efficient if you're traveling more than 5 miles, but seriously. This is highway robbery.

Now, my head really hurts from the fancy mathematics.

A gentleman clips his toenails in the park!