sights from Monday

Big changes coming in my apartment building's basement! Shinuiju Sticky Rice Soondae, a blood-sausage stew restaurant that's been here at least as long as I have, is closing down forever. It initially closed when one of its managers went into the hospital (there was a sign saying as much), and it never reopened. Now, here we are: there's a yellow stanchion and a red-and-white tape saying the place is closed, presumably for good. A place that stays closed for too long can't make any money, so it inevitably dies—as do we all, yes?

I saw something interesting during my Monday-night walk: miniature buildings and a car, all half-submerged in the Tan Creek. What's that all about? I have no idea. Here's what I saw as I crossed the creek:

Here's a blurry closer look at the mini buildings (my phone cam sucks in low light):

Here's a closer shot of that car. I hope it's not real, and not leaking real fluids into the creek:

Please just be a hollow shell and not a real car that had an accident.

Another shot of the car:

And below, a last shot of one of the mini buildings. The large sign on the building's upper left says "convenience store"; the other labels say things like "dentist's office" and "Chinese-medicine clinic" and "neurosurgery," "dance academy," etc. The smaller building toward the back has a red label that says "math academy." Next to that is a white sign advertising taekwondo. It's like some weird little community for midgets or something.

I'd been by here only a few days ago when none of this was here; this is my first time seeing this stuff, which must be for some sort of event—maybe a demonstration of something. Koreans love the didactic.

The walk itself was my regular 9K out to the Han and back. I'd fasted during the day, but this time, there was a teeny, tiny bit of chest pain at the beginning of the walk, so I decided not to chance it and sat down to rest at the first opportunity. Five minutes later, I was fine, and I stayed fine for the rest of the walk. Go figure.

I ate a small wheel of Camembert when I got back to my place (cheese generally doesn't spike blood sugar or insulin that much), and I built the second of three new storage shelves. I've also decided to feed nachos to the office crew this coming Friday, so I've been assembling ingredients in preparation for that. I bought avocados over the weekend; I can only hope they'll be ready to be guac'ed by Thursday evening. Let us pray.

The fasting I did Monday will be done again this Wednesday, and one more time on Saturday. Normally, I'd fast on Friday, but Friday is the office luncheon and nachos. I'll eat the nachos, but I might make an effort to stick with diet soda. No promises, though.