I Walked …

… Home from work Friday night because the two family cars were in use elsewhere — about 2 1/2 miles. You see so much more on foot. I saw:

*The pride of ownership in the modest homes and well-kept lawns between the SR and Forest Cemetery. It’d be nice to walk to work every day.

*Former commish Ron Rankin’s grave, directly facing the Civil War soldier in Forest Cemetery. And the “I (Heart) Dad” ribbon that a family member had left. I remember how Ron snapped up two plots when the Cemetery Department found that 10 or so grave sites were available around that famous statue. I quietly applauded the oldtimer for picking up the best resting place in the cemetery for his wife, Alice, and himself.

*Someone had scribbled in black pen on the soldier: ” Tiffany waz here.” And wondered how thoughtless a person would have to be to deface that wonderful monument.

*A sealed envelope with a Hallmark card placed on a nearby grave with the simple lettering of “Dad” on it for a man named Hugh who’d died in 2003 — and a Snickers bar underneath. And wondered about the love that went into that gesture. Hugh was a lucky man.

*The grave of Mae E. McEuen , who is memorialized by McEuen Field on the waterfront, three rows in from the front of the cemetery, among several other tombstones with the McEuen name on them.

*Young men setting up a grandstand for some kind of Xtreme Sports jumping competition on a corner lot along Fourth this weekend, while others revved their bikes and wheeled them to the top of dirt hills nearby.

* Talouse Moose , the Moose on the Loose sponsored by the Coeur d’Alene School District, standing in the corner of a glass-enclosed office being used for storage im Midtown, with a plaque warning of surveillance cameras and not to touch.

*A pretty hot looking 2001 Mustang convertible on a used-car lot at Fourth and Locust.

You see a lot of things when you get out of your car and take time to look. And I couldn’t help feeling that I live in a wonderful town.