Winter Thaw

A warm-up moved in last week after several weeks of below freezing temps, some into the teens.  With the warm-up, I was able to walk a circuit of the nearby park track.  It was interesting, and a wee bit frustrating, to note that the stamina I'd gained before the holidays, before the cold, was gone. But I returned the following day, and over the next four days managed to improve my time.

Ponds are prolific in the area, there's one at the park in fact, and there are even a few small lakes in the county.  All have flocks of resident Canada geese.  Geese are grazers.  Last fall as I walked my mile at the park, I watched local youth playing soccer in an area that had hosted feeding (and pooping) geese in the days before.  Poop on the ball, poop on the shoes, even poop on the kids' clothes.  Disgruntled parents, I'm sure.  And always, there's poop on the track.  As I walked after the thaw had begun, I noted areas along the path where snow had been plowed from grassy areas so the geese would have a food source.  The geese are protected by law, so they can't be destroyed.  But I hope there's a plan to confine and cart them off to the "wilds" when they molt later this year. 

Here at home, the kittens are testing my patience.  (What, you're not surprised?)  Toilet bowl water now intrigues Simon, so the lid on both commodes needs to be kept down.  But I'm tempted to just let him fall in, just once.  That experience might have a long-term impact.  When I shower, they bat at the stall's glass walls, trying to catch the rivulets of streaming water.  At one time they played in the second bathroom, jumping into and out of the tub, until one day Lilli climbed the shower curtain.  (The curtain is now flipped up over the curtain rod.)  I can't water indoor plants without both kittens getting in the pots.  The day I water, I chase them away from or out of the containers by either shaking the squirt bottle of water or actually spraying them.  And they're close to being full grown.  Simon now weighs what Ginger did when she died.  On Monday he jumped up on the bar stool, stepped up on the counter and proceeded to investigate items there such as the poinsettia which had been placed high to keep him, them, away from it.  Now I've moved it to another, more inaccessible, spot.

The thaw of last week is being erased by a cold front moving in.  I won't be walking for a few days, perhaps a week.  But I'll get my exercise here in the condo as I chase the cats out of the flower pots and repeatedly return their toys to the cats' basket.