I'll admit it--I'm a street walker.

One of the problems with committing to write a blog post every week (which I've failed to do after just two weeks) is that sometimes you get interrupted or called away in the middle of writing, and when you come back you just don't feel it anymore.

That's what happened last week. I had started my blog post early in the week; all of a sudden it was Friday and I wanted to finish it up ... but something just wasn't feeling right about it. Still isn't. So, I'm going with a whole new story. The good thing about Blogger is that it seems I can just start a new post and leave the other one there to "simmer," as it were, until I'm feeling it again.

Today I think I will rail on a bit about sidewalks.

Last night, I was at a village council meeting where we talked, along with the school board and a Wellness Foundation representative about developing a plan for "Healthy Communities." I'm all about healthy communities. I would certainly like my own community (myself included) to be healthier.

For the past two months--since Jan. 1, 2010, to be exact--I have made a commitment to myself to walk every night. As I've mentioned before, I walk most places anyway, since I don't have a car. But this is in addition to the "getting-where-I'm-going" kind of walking. Not excessive; just 20 minutes to a half hour.

I've gotten to like it. I've been taking the dog with me. She likes it too. So much, in fact, that she follows me around as soon as I get up from the dinner table, lest I leave without her. Sometimes, David even joins us. I think he likes it all right.

So, anyway, I'm walking more. This means I'm keeping an eye on the sidewalks around town. One of the topics we discussed at last night's meeting was "safe routes to school." Hmm. Interesting that I'd just been talking to someone (an adult) who had to walk to the high school. She gets almost there and the sidewalk ends. This is not a Shel Silverstein poem, guys. The sidewalk literally ends two houses before you get to the high school drive. In the deep snow that we have now, this meant she could trudge along through the snow or walk on the shoulder of the state highway. Neither is a really good idea.

I'm thinking it's a hard enough sell to get kids to walk to high school (how un-cool) without the barrier of nowhere to walk.

Then there's the issue of sidewalks that are there, but people have neglected to shovel them. According to village ordinance, it is the owner's responsibility to maintain the sidewalks in front of their home. This means that if they live on a corner, they have to shovel on the side of their home, too. Just because you don't walk there, doesn't mean no one else will.

Sometimes, sidewalks are shoveled, but it is a narrow pathway. Occasionally, people have shoveled early in a snowstorm, but the snow keeps falling. During the storm, people start walking through the snow or slush, and then it's more difficult to clear the sidewalk. I'm sympathetic to that; it happens to all of us once in a while. But as I walk, I notice that it seems to be the same people every time.

I also walk past many homes that have been vacated due to foreclosure. In a small town like Manchester, you usually know which houses these are. And you never know what the sidewalk conditions might be there. So a seasoned walker will use a little extra caution in front of these houses. My "extra" caution wasn't enough, however, as I walked across a driveway last week that was obviously a solid sheet of ice underneath a couple of inches of snow. I took my first fall of the season. Hopefully, it's also my last.

There are also dozens of crooked places in the sidewalk from frost heaves or whatever. Sometimes water pools there and leaves a tiny skating rink. Sometimes an unsuspecting pedestrian will trip over one of these spots. I've certainly had my share of near-misses. You know how clumsy I am.

This week, in the nicer weather, the snow is starting to melt. Woo-hoo! But the drawback is that it still gets cold enough to freeze every night. And that's not good news for the sidewalks that are below the road level, especially where there are no curbs. You could be taking your life in your hands on those sidewalks.

The last hazard of the sidewalk is the one that bothers me the most. People who let their dogs "do their thing" on the sidewalks. Talk about gross. You are walking along and there's a big pile in the middle of the sidewalk.  As I walk along with my own dog, I realize you can't always control where they decide to go. But you can pick it up and dispose of it somewhere less obvious. What kind of person wouldn't want to do that? Would they want to be the one stepping in the dog's doo?

I could say a lot more about sidewalks. But that's enough for one day. Besides, I could get interrupted at any moment. I will say this: Walking is great. But before we go gung-ho about getting everyone all healthy by walking the sidewalks of our community, let's get--and keep--the sidewalks themselves in healthier shape first.