June 16, 2006

Walks, Playgrounds and History

Happy Friday Everyone!

Last night I took Dawson and Murphy (our boston terrier) for a long walk. It felt good to sweat out all the yuckies in my body. You know what I’m talking about– the stress, the headache, the back ache and all the other “Mommy Ailment” I seem to be suffering. Even my mind felt clear during our jaunt.

We walked down our block first and saw the neighbor out side with her two American Water Spaniels. They were so cute with their curly black fur. Immediately upon seeing these little canines, Dawson shouted, “Mumma! Sa Puppy!” Yes. That is a puppy. Two puppies.

We then walked toward the public library and I dropped off an over due book I was reading. It was a boring book. I don’t even remember the name of it now. And it certainly wasn’t worth the 4 day late fees of $0.50 per day I’ll be receiving, but hey, the library needs to make money, too.

After our short stop we continued walking down Roosevelt Drive. Memories of walking home from school down the sidewalk on this road came flooding back. My brother and I would race to see who could get home faster. It was not a short run — at least 3/4 of a mile. I know that’s nothing but as kids it was quite the workout.

We passed the “high class” neighborhood of Shadow Haven where all the gigantic mansions were built 15 years ago. I remember all the snotty, bratty kids who lived in that subdivision and thought they were king of the world because their parents bought homes there. I have to laugh because some of them had such high mortgages and had foreclosures for non-payment. Heh. Who’s high and mighty now?

We walked all the way to Roosevelt Elementary and Dawson played on the toddler playground. He adores going down the slide and crawling through the tunnel. It’s so funny to see all this brand new equipment. When I went to school there, it was all wood with a tire swing and lots of miscellaneous monkey bars and jungle gym things. Those are gone now. Man, how time flies.

We then walked down Washington Avenue to the Heritage Park. Heritage Park is a neat little project of the Portage County Historical Society. They relocated the old train depot building, the old post office, an old church, and a few historical homes to this neat little block in “downtown” Plover. Dawson loves to see the train car.

If the weather is nice after work, I’m going to take him back there and take some pictures. I think that would be fun!

Well, off to work for me! Have a great weekend!