![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ding-Ding Park
Feb. 17th, 2011 09:49 amI can't find my USB plug for my camera right now, despite emptying both computer bags, the cord bag, and even digging through random, unlikely places. Nuts. I'd wanted to post a few pictures of what Mason and I got up to yesterday.
Mason got a bit bored at the Women of Wyrdsmiths Wednesday gathering, so Eleanor offered to go home a bit early. After dropping her off (and remarking at the large number of hawks along 94,) Mason and I decided to try to hit "ding-ding" park. "Ding-ding" is so named because there's is a train track that crosses very near the park entrance, and when Mason was a toddler he was rather obsessed with trains. He'd get excited whenever the crossing guard arms would drop and the bells would ring. We'd go stand as close as we dared and count cars. All the time the crossing bell would ring: "ding! ding!"
It may be officially called Aldine Park, I'm not sure. It's about eight or nine blocks from us, as you cross the highway on the pedestrian bridge. Mason wanted to pack a picnic, even though I warned him that the entire park might be sludgy snow. He also wanted to bring along a notebook to record all the animals we might see on the way, because as we left Eleanor's place, we saw what was probably a Cooper's hawk carrying a dead... mouse? vole?... in its beak or talons. This is what we recorded:
Feb. 16, 2011
Saw hawk carrying dead mouse/vole on the highway
2 hawks sitting together on one lamp post
Many birds in bushes, trees, vines, and on rooftops.
A cardinal.
Crows.
A dog.
A horde of teenagers swearing up a blue streak.
Because, when we got to the park and played a little bit, a group of teenagers got off the bus and took over the park like a small invasion force. We decided not to stay for fear Mason might learn new combinations of various oaths. (Alas, my little reader knows most of the swear words in American English and British English, but he really doesn't need to hear them out loud.)
I did take a couple of pictures at the park because, before the teenagers came, it was kind of comical to watch Mason struggle through the snow, which is hard packed in some spots, but soft and deep in others. In fact, on his way in to the playground section of the park, he got one foot so deeply into a mushy hole that he got his boot stuck so badly he ended up pulling out the liner with his foot and had to dig to release the boot from its icy near-grave. I would have helped him, but I was laughing too hard. (Actually, I eventually did help. He didn't quite have the leverage figured or the arm strength.)
Hopefully Shawn will know where the cord is and I can post the picture tomorrow.
Mason got a bit bored at the Women of Wyrdsmiths Wednesday gathering, so Eleanor offered to go home a bit early. After dropping her off (and remarking at the large number of hawks along 94,) Mason and I decided to try to hit "ding-ding" park. "Ding-ding" is so named because there's is a train track that crosses very near the park entrance, and when Mason was a toddler he was rather obsessed with trains. He'd get excited whenever the crossing guard arms would drop and the bells would ring. We'd go stand as close as we dared and count cars. All the time the crossing bell would ring: "ding! ding!"
It may be officially called Aldine Park, I'm not sure. It's about eight or nine blocks from us, as you cross the highway on the pedestrian bridge. Mason wanted to pack a picnic, even though I warned him that the entire park might be sludgy snow. He also wanted to bring along a notebook to record all the animals we might see on the way, because as we left Eleanor's place, we saw what was probably a Cooper's hawk carrying a dead... mouse? vole?... in its beak or talons. This is what we recorded:
Feb. 16, 2011
Saw hawk carrying dead mouse/vole on the highway
2 hawks sitting together on one lamp post
Many birds in bushes, trees, vines, and on rooftops.
A cardinal.
Crows.
A dog.
A horde of teenagers swearing up a blue streak.
Because, when we got to the park and played a little bit, a group of teenagers got off the bus and took over the park like a small invasion force. We decided not to stay for fear Mason might learn new combinations of various oaths. (Alas, my little reader knows most of the swear words in American English and British English, but he really doesn't need to hear them out loud.)
I did take a couple of pictures at the park because, before the teenagers came, it was kind of comical to watch Mason struggle through the snow, which is hard packed in some spots, but soft and deep in others. In fact, on his way in to the playground section of the park, he got one foot so deeply into a mushy hole that he got his boot stuck so badly he ended up pulling out the liner with his foot and had to dig to release the boot from its icy near-grave. I would have helped him, but I was laughing too hard. (Actually, I eventually did help. He didn't quite have the leverage figured or the arm strength.)
Hopefully Shawn will know where the cord is and I can post the picture tomorrow.
