cycling

Construction and a Tree on Caroline Between Pratt & Gough
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Construction and a Tree on Caroline Between Pratt & Gough

Construction workers in front of a big project with a lone tree in the foreground.

When I first rode my bike around east Baltimore after moving to town 13-odd years ago, I often rode through the Perkins Homes public housing development. I wondered to myself why the city let public housing and the people who live in public housing live so close to the ritzy neighborhoods of Harbor East and Fells Point. and here we are, and Perkins Homes is gone, being rebuilt like this. It is like being in a whole new place I barely recognize, and I also know that once it’s finished, it will feel like it has always been here. Because we get used to things, for good or ill.

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Looking Out Over the Water at Canton Waterfront Park

Benches on green grass looking out over water against a blue sky filled with puffy white clouds. There are a couple of geese in the left hand corner.

It’s the first day of summer vacation or, for me, the first day of summer school. I have been teaching summer school for almost 25 years. Sometimes I think about not teaching summer school, but what would I do with all of my time? And could I get by without the money? The answer to the latter question is definitely yes, but it’s a hard habit to break, that grad student/contingent faculty worry that you won’t get paid again. I mostly do it at this point because I like that spice of structure to my summer, just a bit to keep me from falling into a what-am-I-doing-with-my-life hole.

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