Day in the Life of an Idiot

As you know, Bob, the main entrance to the Minnehaha creek hiking paths is closed for construction. I believe the Parks & Rec folks are taking advantage of the drought to do some support work on the crumbling falls. Apparently, they’ve also widened the paths, because some of the sections I always sort of held my breath as Mason clambered across on the “cliff section,” as I like to call it, are now quite a bit leveled and widened. It looks a lot less natural, alas, but the part of me that’s a concerned parent likes it well enough.

On Wednesday, Mason and I packed our adventure bag (binoculars, magnifying glass, camera, notebook, pencil, sun screen, bug spray, field guides to “critters” and trees, and a brown bag lunch) and headed to the park. We got there at around 10:30 am, and found the new entrance to the park, which is just beyond the usual and brings you down on the other side of the first stone bridge. The park folks have really improved that first wide rapids spot. They added a relatively natural looking amphitheatre type structure out of field stone for adventurers to sit on, and removed the rather dangerous rebar and cable that used to stick up around at the shore. I think, perhaps, they realized that people are going to use that area as a swimming hole, so they might as well make it a bit safer and easy to access. A ton of kids were in the water when we arrived, all screaming and shouting about “crawdads,” which, alas, we never saw. We did wade around a bit, though the creek has dried significantly and is really little more than a trickle -- where there used to be roaring rapids.

Mason and I made the hike all the way to the Mississippi beach. Here, we had lunch (peanut butter sandwich for me, ham and mayo for Mason, chips for both, and plenty of icy, cold water.) Mason wanted to throw his crusts out for the sea gulls, but I asked him to wait until we saw the birds again because that beach is already so trashy I didn’t want to litter, even something as biodegradable as that. I’m glad I did.

Not too much later, a family of ducks came ashore – a mother and her half dozen or so yearlings. A mean kid threw a stone at them and nearly hit them, but they were quite determined to come to land at that spot, so they circled around and waited for him to leave. When the mean kid left, they waddled to shore, hardly caring that three fishers were casting lines right there. They seemed quite used to people in general (if not mean ones in particular). One of the fishermen started handing out his lunch, and I thought, “Hey, I have those crusts!” I tried to coax Mason over to help, but he was intent on a sand castle, so I fed the ducks. They were tame enough to take bread right from my hands.

Further along on the beach, Mason discovered a large dead fish. As he later told Mama, he thought it had been there long enough that flies had “colonized” it. I don’t, however, think he saw actual maggots or fly eggs yet, but he did investigate with a magnifying glass, and I stayed far away, so who knows? It had certainly been there a long time.

Mason in the woods is an awesome thing to behold. As intent as he gets reading, so he is when he’s exploring. Usually, the hike is a lot of sprinting ahead and circling back saying “C’mon” and other helpful things (ala “Tigger” in “A House at Pooh Corner,”) but when he’s laying on the beach staring at the sand or sitting in a field of plantains, he’s in the zone. You can hardly move him. I’ve learned to just find a comfy spot and wait. Sometimes I sit for a half hour or more while he talks quietly to himself and does whatever it is he’s doing.

Processing, maybe. Having a mental downtime. Communing with nature. I don’t know, but it seems to do him a lot of good.

While he did his thing, I saw a hawk, two loons, and a chipmunk. Plus, I got a little mental rest too. It was nice. After the hike, we stopped at See Salt and I bought Mason a “Squid Ink” ice cream cone (really black cherry, though it was defiantly an ugly gray color.) I had a little taste. Despite its off color, it was quite yummy. Still very clever, as I think they make their own ice cream there and the color was probably a goof. Calling the ugly color squid ink, I suspect, sold tons of scoops to kids just like mine.

On Thursday, we thought to head to the zoo but got derailed. Mason really wanted to read more back cover copy of the “Goosebumps” series, so we started on another book hunt adventure. This time we started at Midway Books in our own neighborhood, then off to the HPB in Saint Louis Park, where we hit the jackpot. Mason even managed to spend his coupon on a new “[Blank] from the Black Lagoon” book that he spotted after spending a half hour pretending not to enjoy the “Goosebumps” books.

I, of course, managed to pick up a new JMS “Spider-Man.” This one is #5 of the graphic novel collections, “Unintended Consequences” (#51 – 56), of which I already read and reported on #51/492 “Digger” and #52/493 “Dig This” single issues.

Finally, we ended the great book hunt at Red Balloon here in Saint Paul, but the “Goosebumps” pickings were slim. Mason did get “Bad Kitty” a book he fell in love with years ago and has been trying to find since, and a couple more of the Black Lagoon series by Mike Thayer (illustrated by Jared Lee.) All and all a successful book hunt. We conquered many a book!

Today, it is raining (hopefully all day). I wonder what we'll do?