I’ve been walking to school for fifty-six years. I started the process in 1956, when I walked to kindergarten in Flossmoor, Illinois. Then I walked to school in Philadelphia, South Dakota, St. Louis, rode a bike to school in Columbia, Missouri and Iowa City, Iowa, took a break from school for ten years in San Francisco, but then the school addiction kicked in again, this time as a teacher, and I rode a motorcycle to San Francisco State, went back to Iowa for the longest stretch of all, then on to Thailand, and now Dubai. For somebody who keeps posting rants against education, I sure have spent a lot of time in school.
My latest walk to school is quite different than the others I’ve enjoyed. Here, on the edge of the city, it’s pure desert. Our apartment building is right across from the school. There’s nothing else out here. Most of the apartment buildings are empty, though some have been completed for years.
There’s a stray cat that lives in some refuse that’s settled along the outer wall of our building. It seems comfortably housed and I suppose it somehow gets enough to eat and drink. I said “hello” to it this morning and it meowed back.
geezersabroad 
I like it. Very post-apocalyptic. Do you see any quad-bikes ridden by screaming punks on your travels?
“Walking to school” … the lonliest walk… and now we have the iconic visual.
Can you bike to work or is the distance too short?
i tried biking today. i bought an average quality mountain bike, a bit too small for me, but 99% of bikes are, for about a fifth of what it had probably cost new. Anyway, big knobby tires. Spilled out within thirty yards and had to walk it the rest of the way. The sand here is like powder, like rouge. You can’t bike on it. Once I got the road it was an asset, and it only took me five minutes to get to work!
I realize that it’s tough on the sand but still a short walk with a bike is less of big deal and then riding. You will feel better. Or rethink some other route even if it adds another 10 min. This is for your health.
I’ve worked for employers close enough that I did cycle an extra 8 km. just to build in exercise and extend a short commute.