Parks, Recreation and the Decision Making Process

Tomorrow, I think I'll take Ritter to a park. I have a few days off this week, and I've been trying to spend them in practical ways. Today was kinda shot because I had a class to teach that ended up being cancelled, but a lot of my day was wound up in that, and by the time I untwisted everything and then woke up from an accidental nap, there was only time for the usual malarkey. Still, I'd like to take my dog to a nice park tomorrow: the weather is supposed to be pleasant, I have a day off, and I could certainly stand to spend some time drawing. Besides, if I don't plan something, I'll just spend the whole of tomorrow morning sleeping.

To which park, out of the many here in town, should I take my dog? Hmmm....not Memorial park, I don't see anything particularly appealing about Memorial park, it's mostly just a great big lawn with some stuff in it. Boooring! Now, there was this one time when I was fourteen and we went there to see the fireworks for the fourth of July, I remember that occasion with a fair amount of fondness, but really, do I want to spend a morning walking around doing nothing but thinking about a single occasion that happened a long time ago? No.

So, what am I looking for in a park? Lots of big, beautiful twisty trees, lots of shade since I'm not a huge fan of sunlight, things to draw...I'm thinking of a park where everything is a castle, and any two trees standing parallel instantly become a doorway, faery or otherwise. The paths are made of gravel, the ground is littered with leaves and acorns. Where is this park? It took me nearly five minutes to realise that I was thinking of Thousand Oaks park, which is in California, and a bit of a ways away from where I live now. Besides, it's not the same park any more. The playground is no longer made of wood, the troll bridge is gone, and the space ship, and the swings where everyone once thought I had died because it had looked like I snapped my neck when I fell but I'd only filled the side of my face with scabs. The pole where the whole object of the game was to jump off of it and not get killed (a winner every five minutes!) The fish-bowl-on-a-wall thingy that everyone told me not to sit on. That's all been replaced by some plastic monstrosity. I saw it in 2008, it's very dull now. The guilty thrill of possibly getting a splinter in your foot is all gone. I think they even replaced all the sand. I liked that sand. Digging in it, we were going to dig all the way to China, but after we dug a foot and a half we hit dirt and that was the end of that scheme.

The best part of that park was the castle made of shrubs. They were allowed to grow wild for ages and ages. The leaves were tiny and dark, and looked like they were made of horribly abused leather, but in the Summertime the bushes bloomed with tiny puffs of blue flowers. The bushes were spaced apart poorly and little round sections of bare ground in between them made chambers and hallways, and I think somewhere there was a throne room, but I never spent much time in it. Each cousin and each friend got his or her own room to claim. My sister had the biggest room, but as she spent the most time there, it made perfect sense. My room was the only room with a ceiling, this was because it was in the dungeon. It was made out of a bush that had a significant part of it's centre cut away into a cave with handy branches for sitting.

While I was there, I was once attacked by demon beasts from hell who chewed and gnawed at my door, clawing and screaming and raging at me. It stopped being amusing when they turned out to be real, although they looked a lot like massive chow dogs, taller than my waist. They were not supervised. They came straight at me from the neighbouring houses for no good reason and struck with no higher authority to call them back. There was no place to escape to and my sister was far away. Sasha, a dachshund, rose to my defence and drove them off, and ultimately I only had a scratch on my forearm instead of having my throat ripped out. That was a pretty interesting day.

Those shrubs are all gone now. In fact, the only thing left of our old castle is the shrub where my dungeon room used to be and the tall chimney tree. I suppose it would be impractical to hope that I can take Ritter to a place that no longer exists.

There was another park that sprang to mind, with big twisty trees and bushes that billowed over a cool stream like clouds that made pathways in the wind. The bushes were laiden with blackberries, and the paths were lined with mint. We used to spend hours there, staining our faces with our berry swag and coming home with handfuls of mint stalks that met no end happier than a garbage can. I think I was six the last time I was there, so probably not the Blackberry Creek or Mint Isle either. Nostalgia is a bitch.

The tidal waves at the beach and Half Moon Bay are probably not a good idea either, I won't find a decent plane ticket at this time of night.

There is a park with twisty trees and a creek in Manitou, of course, but I went there last week. Palmer Park? No. No, I go there all the time, but the air is dry there, the sun is too warm. The trees are all pine which would be okay normally but it gets a trifle boring after a while looking at all those needles. There's the train park across from my old church, but it hasn't been interesting ever since they got rid of the old, concrete trains and replaced them with another plastic monstrosity. Honestly! What does the State think children are? Of course they're going to get hurt once in a while. Taking away all the wood and concrete isn't going to stop that, additionally, I seem to remember burning my feet on the hot plastic much more often than getting splinters, and it turns out that when you fall over and smash your chin on the ground and bite your tongue, plastic and concrete feel alarmingly similar.

Besides, I'm older now, and without proper play mates it's better to visit castles and dungeons in my head, they're more perfect there. The only thing play structures are really use for anymore are games of “Ultimate The Floor is Lava.” Which reminds me, I need to organise one of those. We should do it at night next time, I think.

So where should I go tomorrow? Not the green belt by our old house; I'm pretty sure that won't end well. Not Cottonwood park; in order for that place to be fun, you need an ice block and sole claim on the hill by the baseball diamond, and in that case there's nowhere to put a dog. Oh! There's the park near the Fine Arts Center. There are lots of lovely twisty trees there, and a pond that I'm not allowed to wade in. There's a flower garden and plenty of shade. I had my highschool graduation photos taken there. Come to think of it, I had all my graduation photos taken there. And the garden should be coming into bloom nicely right about now, I can practically hear “O Mio Babinno Caro” playing in the background, except that it's for reals playing on my itunes right now as I'm writing. Very well, I shall go there.