Winter Sunday

There is something about a winter Sunday that's peaceful and timeless. Everything is white and black, traffic is in a lull, lots of people are staying indoors because of the cold, so the outdoors looks bare and empty. It seems like it will never end.

In the morning while waiting for Hapi to wake up I decided to go for a walk by myself. Soon enough this will be my daily experience. I walked in a part of the Acadia woods that would take Hapi a very long time to get to because she walks so slowly. While out in the woods I ran into E with her dog Lulu, a Great Pyrenees. Lulu has gotten into trouble at the Reservoir enough times that E doesn't go there anymore. A nice dog but big and excitable. It was nice to walk with E and Lulu, a little bit of dog-fix plus catching up with E whom I haven't seen in a while.

Shortly after I got home Hapi was ready to go out so we drove to the Reservoir. We were late, a few people I often walk with were just leaving, but that's okay, we go on the ravine trails when there's no one else around. Hapi perks right up on the ravine trails, she goes faster than me. Then I went skating.

By the time we emerged from the ravine there were lots of people already on the ice, kids, parents and dogs. Somebody brought a portable barbecue and the smell of burning charcoal was starting to waft over the ice. Hapi hung around hoping for a snack. There were tiny toddlers racing down the ice on teeny tiny skates and older kids carefully picking there way on new-to-them skates. Big kids with hockey sticks and pucks, one hockey net and a pair of boots set up as goal posts, and some "rink rats" clearing powdered snow off the track.

On Saturday I was out on the ice the afternoon while Hapi slept at home, I met a friend who brought her kick sled. It's a Swedish thing, two ski-length long blades with a high-backed chair joining the blades at the front. There are a couple of pads on the blades behind the chair that you can stand on, you hold the back of the chair and you kick the sled along with one foot, like a scooter. The blades are long and flexible so you can steer by bending them. I tried it out and then my friend pushed me around while I sat in the chair. She said that in Sweden they don't clear the ice off the sidewalks, everyone has a kick sled to get around on.

There's a constant stream of people coming and going, you can only skate for so long before your feet turn into blocks of ice so very few people stay for the entire day. I usually only skate for half an hour but lots of people skate longer. They enlarged the parking lot this past summer but it is still way too small, there are lots of cars parked on the street. It is so great to see all ages of people out there, skating, playing and learning to skate.