Muddy Sidewalks

(St. Louis, MO, USA)--- I walk quite often in the St. Louis area - at all times of the day and night. In fact, the early morning hours are one of my most active travel times because I work an early shift on weekends --- as well, I am up early most mornings with my daughter making sure she is off to school. So, when construction projects are ongoing where I frequently travel, I make many a mental note. It used to be (and may again become) my job to note construction along roads and highways in St. Louis --- I am one of those people who has made a living as a professional traffic reporter.
The other day --- Wednesday during the late morning --- I made such a notation in my head, yet by this morning I had completely forgotten an important stretch of sidewalk that had been "under construction" on my prior trip. Whoa. That almost was a poor choice of words. Almost --- ONLY BECAUSE somehow I did NOT fall this morning on the sidewalk ALONG SKINKER BLVD. BETWEEN THE FOREST PARK PARKWAY and NORTHWOOD AVENUE. By all accounts --- okay, I was the only one who even saw what happened at 5:40am --- I slipped on the mud for the better part of three seconds, yet remained upright and continued without straining my back. That was a feat, take my word. I can't say that it was as bad as some incidents which were clearly more my fault...but this was at least partially on me because I SHOULD have remembered the muddy stretch. After slipping, I did what some of my fellow traffic reporters obligatorily say on any wet or icy day: I did "use caution". Maybe I should have seen that thin sheen of mud, maybe not. Those amber lights don't really make MUD show up on a dark street, do they? Whatever the case, I made a mental note at every portion of slippery sidewalk to "use caution" and not traverse the concrete at my normal "UPS pace". By the way, a "UPS pace" refers to the quick walking pace that many people who have worked for United Parcel Service have adopted --- it's quicker than a regular walk in the park.
What bugs me about this is simple. Those construction projects along Skinker were of different varieties. One was a cable system at work. Another was perhaps a similar line going underground, while a third was a water department project. Naturally, I could find no reason to STUDY the differences among or between the three projects --- but my reflection upon traveling through those "three construction zones" on the sidewalk makes me think that there was really very little difference. ALL three were "cleaned up" to the standards that the on-site boss felt was necessary. I am sorry that boss-person wasn't trying to walk on the muddy stretch of sidewalk left in the wake of the dirt and dust his or her crew didn't really "clean" up...it was more like...sorta clean. Okay - yes, it's nitpicking, but it's my near-fall, my blog, my playground of words (or lack thereof this morning). I just wish, occasionally, that someone who didn't have to suffer through such a near-incident and who has some fault in the cause of the "near-incident" would truly walk in my shoes --- walking shoes, not construction boots.

Construction boots probably would have "non slip" soles and make it through the grimy stretch just fine.

I'm just thinking as I type: If you do the grime, you should have to feel the crime...you know what I mean --- take a fall --- so someone like me doesn't slip.