Good morning, a good day for a walk with notes during your downtime. And I started early, it’s a Tuesday and I usually do this with my family in the park near my house. But today they won’t be going, they’re going to take care of the garden, which I don’t particularly like because I think it’s a lot of repeated physical effort. And also because I don’t think I’m capable, whenever I try to do something like this they say I’m doing it wrong.

Imagem de um homem careca caminhando pela cidade

So let’s go for a walk

I came to the other city (for those who don’t know, I live right on the border of two cities), the busiest one because it was still early, around 5:40, and as I was passing by the nearest market I saw a large loose root with three cut trunks and a tangle of roots on the other side. I don’t really know why I wrote this down, but it came to mind.

Then I passed near the emergency room in the neighborhood I was in, and I saw a trail of blood… I imagine what could have happened, it could have been a fight, or something like that… I just hope the person is okay.

After that I didn’t see much on the way, just a few open establishments, and during that time I was wandering around thinking about the recent memes from Portugal… Pernambuco em pé, Porto de Gajos, among others… I think I remembered this because I saw the videos the night before, and thank goodness they’ve already passed (at least I didn’t see anything else, and I’m writing this on 05/05/2025 and I haven’t seen anything else about it, back to the walk). Now I’m at the municipal park and I arrived around 6:30 a.m. and now it’s 7 a.m. I stopped to get some water and rest a bit. I plan to walk all day, if possible (and it wasn’t possible).

A cold day, with a hint of rain, I have the feeling that it could happen at any moment. Where am I going now? I don’t know, but I hope to go to a place where I can protect myself from the rain because I have my notebook in hand. I wanted to go towards the upscale neighborhoods of these cities (yes, the upscale neighborhoods here cover two cities, the one I’m in and the one I live in) and try to go back home. But there’s not much protection from the rain there, so I decided to go to the center of the city I was in. Oh, and I also wanted there to be places to get some water, and in the center of this city there were some places I know. Anyway, I’m getting the courage to walk more.

I was about to walk and go to get some water when I heard a few words from one of the park runners (there were 3 people and they were talking to each other) who said “And I’m just here, blanket on my head and shotgun in my hand…” and I was wondering what he was talking about, maybe he was hunting, or maybe he was in the army and was talking about one of his passages. I’ll continue my journey now.

Memory of my father

Imagem de um cadeirante tomando sol a frente de sua casa

I stopped again to take more notes and shortly after leaving the park I met a man in a wheelchair and his leg was swinging, as if he were having contractions. I didn’t stop to talk to him, I just watched him from afar as he walked, and this reminded me of my late father. For those who don’t know, he was in a wheelchair since I was 7 years old, and he left us in 2022. I told him about the man’s swinging leg that I saw, and said that it looked like contractions because my father also suffered from contractions and he sometimes lost sleep at night because his legs wouldn’t stop. Anyway, I headed towards the upscale neighborhoods, but I won’t continue this way.

I arrived and went up a famous street here, known for selling a lot of silver in the past, and I think I’m going to head towards the city center and this street always makes me nostalgic because I’m in front of the place where I used to play basketball when I was a teenager, today I don’t even know what they do around here. I believe that it is currently an annex to the old municipal theater, I say old because recently when I went to the theater it was near the park where I was, and I never went to theaters/things like standup here anymore, only near the park. And this place makes me even more nostalgic because there is (or maybe there was) a municipal library nearby and I said that there is or maybe there was because the internet today forces us to forget about books. And that library was where I came from where I live to here, sometimes on foot, sometimes with friends from school. And now I’m heading towards the street of banks, a street famous here for having many banks.

Large roofless market

Okay, I’ve already walked down the street of banks and honestly I’m a little disappointed with the city… it seems a little abandoned to me. When I started walking down I was going to get a drink of water at a famous, or rather large, market in the city and it was being renovated due to a big storm that happened here. They say that the market lost its roof and they shouldn’t be doing any maintenance on the place, and honestly, good on the owners.

I went down and didn’t find many people there, which used to be a very busy avenue and now it’s about 9:00 and I’m heading towards where I did my technical course and started college in networks. On the way I found it (actually I already knew it existed, I didn’t know if it was open) I talked about it with the saleswoman (who felt the city was a little abandoned) and before leaving I bought some Halls candy and kept going, a little later I stopped at a place that is like a service center (like a poupatempo, or ganhar tempo, I’m not sure what it’s called in the city of São Paulo). I stopped to write this on a bench at the notary’s office.

Before going out for another walk, I remembered that this place used to be a shopping mall, and when I say used to be, I mean in the 90s, but this mall didn’t go ahead and was closed for a while (I don’t know exactly how long, but I think it was about 10 years) and then they created the ganhartempo / poupatempo, I don’t know exactly what it’s called anymore…

Location of my technical course and college

I continued my journey and came to the bus stop where I took some courses (my college course in networks and a technical course in construction). My feet were already hurting, but I didn’t want to go home yet. It was 10:30 and I arrived at another station nearby (I walked the equivalent of two stations from the city center to where I am). In this stretch, the city seemed untouched by the passage of time. I’ve spent little time in this stretch of road in my life, and it doesn’t seem to have changed much, although on one side there is a thicket (with a section of the army) and on the other the train line (there was never much there).

This other station does seem to have changed, but with a touch of the few times I’ve been there. Just above it, I remember that there is a SENAI, where I took some courses there (in fact, I think it was only one, in PC assembly and maintenance). I thought about going there, but since it was about 10 minutes away and only uphill, I decided not to go.

And so our trip ends, I return home by bus… It was good to have taken this trip, it made me feel lost, but it also made me feel like I was in a familiar place. A bit of nostalgia, a desire to keep everything the way I knew it. I can’t do much, but it also made me accept that time changes… it also made me feel old (especially with the shopping mall as a time saver)… It made me remember my father, who despite being away for a few years, I still miss him (although if he were alive today, I think he would only complain about me).

And that’s it, for those who don’t know, I walked around the city of Barueri. If you liked it, leave a comment so I know, and I’ll get going.