The back streets of the end of summer

[muckefuck]

I don't know what season we're in anymore. Today was like a compromise between the heat and humidity of high summer and the cool, crisp days of autumn: cool and veryy humid. Last night was so oppressive that I ran the air conditioning. (Yes, me!) On the way to monshu's last night, I saw the first gold honey locust leaf. Today, I passed some ornamental shrub whose crown is reddening.

monshu, for his part, has officially declared the arrival of autumn. His summer landscape scroll has been replaced with one that shows pine trees interspersed with touches of red and brown foilage. Last night's dinner was pork tenderloin cooked in milk and garlic mashed potatoes with Asiago cheese--not exactly light summer fare. He was lamenting that the summer was gone before we knew it and now fall is speading past as well.

Somehow, we managed to get through the entire season without hitting the lakeshore more than once. Resolved: I will visit the Lake at least one time per calendar week from now until the end of fall (defined as the time when it's too butt-ass freezing cold to be standing on the beach like a moron in an icy gale).

Speaking of definitions, what constitutes "an alley"? Presumably, we all agree that a thoroughfare with a consistent street name is the "same street", even though it twists and turns or stops and starts again, right? What about nameless alleys? Today, I walked through the middle of four blocks. Each time the alley met the street, it was faced by another alley mouth. Looking forward, I had a clear view behind the backs of all the buildings to a landmark building due north of me.

So how would you describe my walk? Did I walk down the alley for four blocks? Or did I walk down four alleys? What if the alleys hadn't lined up perfectly?

Comments

[teapot-farm.livejournal.com]

To my mind, an alley has to be continuous, narrow, not accessible to powered vehicles (except those annoying little electric scooter things), and closed in on both sides, preferably by buildings or high walls (though fences and railings *may* count, if they're at the end of a small garden or similar rather than a big open space). You walked down four alleys, even if the map calls them all by the same name.