From a distance

For a time when I lived in Indianapolis, I was a regular runner, eventually getting up to 5 miles per run (seems unfathomable now). When I started out, I logged only about a mile per run, and I recall the surprise of people back home when I told them that a mile run was a run around the block. Literally. After leaving the entrance to my housing development, one lap around the block I lived on was slightly more than a mile.

This is an example of how distance can be distorted by what you're used to vs. what actually is, and we're finding that living in a Twin Cities suburb provides a similar distortion from what we were used to in Winthrop.

Out temp housing complex was right off Rte. 35E, but was removed from Eagan's main retail drags, so every time we needed to go shopping or hit a restaurant, we had to get on the highway to get there. On our first day in town, I went grocery shopping while the Kim got the girls settled. I was familiar with Cub Foods (think Market Basket) from my days in Indiana and knew there was one a few exits down the highway, so that's where I went. The mere concept of getting on the highway to do grocery shopping made it seem SO far away, compared to the 3-4 miles I usually drove to get from Pleasant St. to Shaw's in Revere, but it was actually about a mile and a half.

A similar distortion occurs every day when I go to work. The drive to the campus is about 14 miles from out house, then it's "just" a walk from the parking lot. But there are 4500 people working in this one location, and the 6 available parking lots fill up quick. By the time I arrive at the lot at around 8 am, I have about a .4 mile walk from my car to the back door of the building -- which is almost exactly the distance I walked from the Aquarium T station to the Northern Avenue Bridge on my way to my former place of employment.

No deep insights today -- just a reflection. Just as perceptions of time have been disturbed by network programming coming on at 7 pm and daylight still visible past 9:30 pm, perceptions of distance also need considerable adjustment.