Oh look, I have a neighborhood

We've entered the really, genuinely un-writeable part of the pathfinding badge: locating things around my neighborhood. I understand where this is coming from, of course. When you were a farm boy growing up, it was intensely practical to know the locations of each doctor in a multi-mile radius. What if you got mangled in a plow? Now, however, recognizing each fire hydrant in the immediate vicinity is a little more sloggy than I'd hoped.

Requirements 5 and 6:
* Know the location of the nearest meat markets, bakeries, groceries, and drug stores.
* Know where the nearest police station, hospital, doctor, fire alarm, fire hydrant, telegraph and telephone offices, and railroad stations are.

But! The 17 ideals of scouting do inform me that one must be cheerful (in addition to thrifty, obedient, and clean). And so, off I went. Meat market accomplished days ago, there were still more locations to visit, and visit them I did. I'll spare you photographic evidence of the vast majority, but please believe me that, dude, there are a lot of drug stores.


There are also a lot of grocery stores, and since my neighborhood is exceedingly gentrified, there are a lot of grocery stores that fall into the realm of the absurd. This one, for example, featured the largest display of materials for the decoration of cakes I think I've ever seen. Man, I sound ridiculous.

There was also a great number of the more average groceries I frequent, but that sort of place was less open to my picture-taking.

In a nod to public safety, I did also visit the hospital (no, not in an emergency! emergency! way), and checked out a series of doctor's offices, as well.

Sadly, I think the telegraph and telephone offices have fallen by the wayside, along with the liveries and blacksmiths. There's a Verizon dealer on my corner, though. Does that count?

One more mark of success for the day: in my exploration, I acquired two delightful things. First, a small kefir, which was perhaps not the best choice for a walk outside on a hot day, but was still cold and tasty, and second, a copy of "Cloudsplitter," which has been on my reading list for forever. (I bought it at a stoop sale, from girl who was maybe 10 and was a hard bargain-driver. Man, I didn't dare to ask her to lower her price.) My husband wonders if I'm on a Civil War kick lately (I'm currently finishing the first volume of Shelby Foote's "The Civil War"). He may have a point.

Tomorrow, we're back into the more exciting section of pathfinding. How exciting? I'm going to Staten Island. Seriously.