Possumblog

Best Present?

Well, I figure it had to be the combination of the weather and time off. We don't have a lot of just loafing around time, and when the kids asked to go to the park Wednesday, I figured we could do that with no problems. We had a full day planned--go drop Oldest off at her grandparents for a few days' stay, then drop back downtown to pay our property tax at the courthouse, then over to the sheriff's department to renew my pistol permit, then, nothing else, really.

Beautiful day--a bit windy and chilly, but bright sunshine. The kids enjoyed getting to walk around in a real live city with taxicabs and steam coming out of manhole covers (I started to write "and steaming manholes" but thought better of it) and buildings taller than three stories. Did all of our regulatory stuff, then went home to the park, where they played and played and played. Got Cat to lie down on her back on the tire swing and spun her around, and taught her that if she brings her legs in, she twirls faster. She did that for a long time, to the point I figured I might better stop before she had something flying out of her.

Then, we got to go back Friday. Went and got Oldest, who most CERTAINLY did not want to go to the kiddy park upon her return home, so the younger three and I set out for the park again and they swung and ran and screamed and hollered and Boy and I made a sundial out of rocks on top of one of the picnic tables, and I explained about the gnomon having to both point true north and point upwards at the exact same degree as our latitude. I think we must have gotten pretty close on both scores.

And then, there was yesterday. It was a record high--77 real live honest-to-goodness Fahrenheit degrees. Bright blue sky, thin white clouds, absolutely heavenly. Mom was off yesterday, and got involved doing other things with Rebecca and Ashley, so it was just Boy and Tiny Girl and I, but that was fine. We did the whole swing, tag, spin, slide thing, and Catherine got to pet a Sheltie that one of the young moms had brought to the park with her kids. Sweet dog, and Catherine rubbed and petted it so much it probably got thin spots in its hair.

Then, time for a break, and since the community center was closed, we did the next best thing by going to CVS to use their restroom and get some snack picnic supplies--three soft drinks and a can of Pringles. We got back in the car and drove over to the river park. It's just open green space beside the Cahaba, with a wonderful old iron bridge that used to be the Highway 11 span. It's a pedestrian bridge now, and we tromped out onto the middle of the deck and sat down and watched the water and ate chips and plotted our next activity.

Which was stone-skipping. We threw away our trash and made our way down to the gravel bank below the bridge and had a grand time rock-chunkin'. Cat was a bit perturbed by her lack of skill, but she finally got the hang of it. We did that for a while, then we clambered back up to the flat grassy bank and they flew their big white foam glider back and forth until the sun started down below the hill.

It was all so very nice. All together, those three days pretty much make the definition of idyllic.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at January 3, 2006 10:49 AM