The theme for April 2025’s edition of the Photo Blogging Challenge is Sidewalks and Roads. I look forward to seeing what everyone came up with. In hindsight, I wish I’d gone out and done some long exposure night photos of vehicles on roads. Those are always fun to make and share. Instead, I have a mix of paths, pathway features and path-related ideas in this mix of 5 photos:

1. There’s More Than One Path to Installing a Windows Update

Just after Easter, my computer started acting strangely. The Wi-Fi card stopped working. It would take 10 minutes to fully boot up to the point the task bar appeared. Once it finally got to that point, most things worked just fine. But there was a glitch in one of my photo processing programs in that it wouldn’t “see” some of the image files. And any time I’d go into “System” to try to figure out whether there was a stuck Windows update slowing things down, I’d get a spinning blue wheel.

Anyhow, to try to make a long and fairly boring story short, I’m going to leave out a lot of the things I tried. One of the main ones was reinstalling Windows, using the repair update option, as shown on my first picture. It’s one of about 20 things I tried that didn’t resolve the performance issues and weirdness. So as of last Saturday, my computer is back at the shop where it was built. They said it would be 6 to 8 days before I heard anything and today is day 5. I have my fingers crossed it’s a failing boot SSD, that I have to pay for a replacement and then reinstall all my apps and programs and that’s the end of it. In the meantime, I’m grateful that my old laptop still runs well and we’re not yet at end of life for Windows 10.

2. Snow-coverd MUP

Regular readers have seen photos of this stretch of the Three Sisters Multi-Use Pathway many times. It’s part of our usual route from home to downtown Canmore. After shopping for groceries, we ride a free local transit bus home. This particular image is from early April, the last significant snowfall event on the valley bottom. We’ve had two subsequent snowfall warnings, but that fell mainly at higher elevations.

3. Library Way

We traveled to New York City in April, where we enjoyed sightseeing, restaurants and shows. I know, I know…many Canadians are boycotting travel to the US. This trip was booked and paid for long before any provocative statements were made about Canada becoming the 51st state. And before tariffs. So we went. And we had a great time. But we haven’t planned any future US vacations.

Getting back to Sidewalks and Roads, this is one of almost 100 plaques embedded in the sidewalk along a two block stretch of East 41st Street. This public art project is called Library Way. The plaques are inscribed with lines of poetry, excerpts from literary works, and inspiring quotes about the importance of the written word, all complemented with graphic elements conceived by New York sculptor Gregg LeFevre. Library Way turned 25 in 2023. For a list of all of the quotes, check out this blog post on the New York Public Library website.

4. One Hundred Stories Above Sidewalks and Roads

While in NYC, we visited two observation platforms: One World Observatory and Edge. Had we not purchased a City Go pass in advance, we’d probably have chosen just one. That would have been a mistake. Each has pros and cons. One World is the tallest building in the western hemisphere and offers 360 degree views of NYC, including the Statue of Liberty. It’s biggest downside? It’s all inside, so there were all kinds of issues with reflections off the glass when trying to take photos.

The Edge viewing area is open to the air, up on floors 100 and 101. While it’s enclosed by glass, the glass is polarized, so there are no reflection issues when taking photos. This picture is from the 100th floor of the Edge viewing platform, where there’s a see through area looking down on New York’s buildings, sidewalks and roads.

5. All Roads Lead to Our House

When my parents flew to Alberta for a short-notice medical appointment in April, we ended up hosting a casual family get together over Easter weekend. It’s a bit ironic that our two “kids” weren’t in attendance; they were certainly missed. Reflecting on our time together, I think it’s the largest gathering of this family since Christmas 2019. As my nephew said, “Let’s hope it’s not another six years before it happens again.”

There you have it! Five ways I interpreted this month’s theme of Sidewalks and Roads. If you have another few minutes, use the linkup at the bottom of host PJ’s post to see how other participants tackled the challenge.

And please, consider joining us for May’s challenge. I will post the theme here as soon as it’s available. All you need are five photos and a blogging platform. There are lots of free and easy-to-use options out there.