I started skateboarding through the neighborhood I grew up in a couple weeks ago just for fun and also to see how many sidewalk paths and landmarks I still remembered.
And of course for nostalgia's sake.
It's becoming something of a real life video game of sidewalk mazes and walker/pedestrian avoidance.
One of my rules: always skate under cloak of darkness (nightfall) aka "the midnight ride". This makes it less likely I will have to have interactions with walkers or children wondering why a middle aged bearded man is lighting up the night with his old school skate, style, and radness.
If I do find myself skating in the opposite direction of a couple of walkers, I will attempt to either skate past them without acknowledging their existence and avoiding eye contact, or make a quick exit to an adjacent sidewalk.
I made it past one walking couple tonight by employing option 2 by changing to a different sidewalk at the last minute and thus avoiding eye contact.
It was smooth. I felt like I was Christian Slater in "Gleaming the Cube."
Made it to the far side of the edition, even foregoing the sidewalks at one point to feel the glory of the streets which were calling my name and beckoning me to traverse them with wheel, bearing, and the occasional act of full-on gravitational defiance.
For a moment, everything was right in the universe. Then I saw them. The same couple I bypassed 20 minutes earlier!
Think fast. Don't make eye contact Tim. They're approximately 15 feet away and I'm getting closer to them by every fraction of a second.
Just Pretend they're not there. I'm flying and my brain is processing all these things. The light from a street lamp sings to me when I hit a crack, almost lose it and nearly slammed right in front of them.
Except I don't.
They flinch. I recalibrate, skate past them and disappear into the darkness of the night.