Just a Blog

HE’S FINE YOU GUYS 

I’m pretty sure those are ptarmigan tracks, not those of a rabbit who got scooped up by something! They’re birds that hop through the snow and then leave those snow-angel imprints when they take off.

This is ABSOLUTELY a perfectly fine footpath.

In fact, with how much space I’m seeing here, it is entirely plausible, that the European hordes will just create a temporary little Wanderweg right next to the highway. With that much space they might not even have to interfere with traffic.

the grass is not a permanent feature. there just happens to be a chunk of it there. the side of the road can vary from grass to swampwater ditches to steep embankments to absolutely nothing within a very short distance.

they will call in every highway enforcer in the state and mass incarcerate the lot of you before they allow you to Darwin Award yourselves across 6 lanes of traffic into an international incident or, (their real concern) impede the progress of the single most important north-south interstate corridor in america, ball kicky game be damned.

and that our government has extremely lax safety standards for our vehicles and trucks, such that many of the SUVs and pickups on our roads frequently kill pedestrians because they can't see them?

and ALSO that we ship most of our goods by 18-wheeler, which are also on the same highway?

that shoulder is wide enough, technically, to walk single file. but the speed limit of the cars is 80km/hr, but most of the time, cars will be going between 88 and 100, on average. and you'd have to walk on the shoulder to cross the river, at least.

it may not be obvious in that picture, but the ground with the marsh grasses visible on the other side of the little wall (called a "jersey barrier") is at least a foot or two below the level of the road, and it's also going to be soft, foul-smelling muck - the kind that sucks your feet down several inches at least. there will be broken glass embedded in it throughout, because of the number of accidents that have happened over the many years of this highway existing.

i have walked along highways - including an interstate, for highway cleanup. I walk regularly, instead of driving, when i can. My friends back in the Pacific Northwest walk most of the time, or take public transit (in the actual cities of the US, there is public transit, even if it's not up to European standards. it does exist. it just doesn't exist in the suburbs). A lot of people in the area where I now live walk, because not everyone has a car, or has access to a car all the time. I've walked along busy roads for long stretches, and I've walked along highway shoulders with no sidewalks, and I've walked along dangerous ground under highways because there was no sidewalk or pedestrian bridge and the highway was dangerous.

Walking from New York to New Jersey is. it's a really really, really, really bad idea. I've done the drive several times. I cannot tell you how bad an idea it is. I have been hit by a truck in this area, back before trucks were all mandated to be big enough to kill on impact. (that's a joke. they aren't mandated to be that big, except by the makers.)

Fiona is married so it's time to reunite with her parents. But instead of marrying a prince, she's married to an ogre. Not just that, but she's also an ogre. (Yes everyone knew she would sometimes be an ogre but that was when she was a child, she didn't know she would be an ogre for the rest of her life, and besides once she met the right prince she would stop being an ogre. She was supposed to stop being an ogre.)

But okay they're both ogres. We can still ask about when they'll have children because even if they're ogres they can still have kids, right? That's what married princes and princesses do so naturally that's what everyone does. Even if ogres might not be great parents (I've heard that ogres eat their young, is that something you people do?) it's still something that should be discussed.

And okay you can stay in Fiona's childhood bedroom filled with all the reminders that hey, everyone thought she was just a princess and princesses marry princes. Her toys left out from the last time she played with them. The prince slays the ogre. The princess offers a token of gratitude for slaying the ogre. Fiona wrote Mrs. Fiona Charming a million times in her diary because what else was she supposed to grow up to be?

And Harold you have to fix this, your country can't be ruled by ogres. You were unfit to rule when you were a frog but I changed you, I made you better, I made you a prince. You know how this works. Think of your daughter's safety.

@giftober 2024 + @mcuchallenge prompt Day 5: Angelic.

Loki, 5 seconds after being devilish. Thor - deleted scene

bonus: