On Monday after work I walked from Capitol Hill to 100th Avenue North and Aurora. I stopped once, on Westlake Ave, to pee against Queen Anne Hill. The entire walk took me slightly over two hours. I noted: a full can of white house paint, thrown onto the sidewalk and abandoned, its still-wet contents spreading across the sidewalk and a patch of grass and into the street (48th and Aurora); a colossal gray spider on the march (the sidewalk between 70th and 71st); a PCC grocery store with five banners outside reading “LOCAL,” “FRESH,” “COMMUNITY,” “NATURAL,” and “ORGANIC” [which of those words is not like the other?] and, across the street, an even larger sign reading, simply, “GUNS” (near 75th); a business called Rhino Linings advertising “The Sprayed-On Bed Liner” (near 83rd); and a Burgermaster publicizing, on a lighted sign, “WORLD’S BEST FISH SAND. HERE” (at 100th).

Plus, lots of motels. I was not mugged or raped.