A walk around the block

Well, two blocks, really . . . or one BIIIIG block . . . or some damned subdivision of the city—the part between 45th and 47th Streets, between Avenue H and Duval.  I finished the walking survey required as part of the neighborhood inventory, which will be incorporated into the database for the Neighborhood Conservation Combining District.  I noted down which houses were single-family, which had been duplexed, which had cars parked in the front yard (that piece of foolishness is gonna stop soon, because the neighborhood association voted to opt in to the city’s ordinance banning front-yard parking, so hereafter people who park any old how in their front yards can be ticketed by the police), where the garages and sheds were, construction and roofing types, number of electric meters, number of mailboxes…anything to give us a clue of how many people are living at a given address, and in what configurations.  After I came home from doing that and had a lie-down, I got up and wrestled some more with that awful, awful redaction of “The Sword in the Stone” that I’m supposed to be re-telling.  I’ve gotten it down from 4,835 words to 2,425, with a target weight of 1,150.