Tradition holds that every year on Boxing Day the Heidmann family takes a meander somewhere in the city. This year our meander began at the Burton Barr Central Library. For those of you who are not familiar, here is what the building looks like from the outside (not my photo):
As you can see, it is humongous! Paul thought it would be fun for the kids to explore inside a bit before going on our walkabout, and so we did. As we usually do, we sent the kids off in pairs that each included a phone and told them to have fun WHILE ON THEIR BEST BEHAVIOR…. and hoped for the best. And what do you know, they did just fine. There was much ado about glass enclosed elevators, and every floor that was open got a thorough looking over. Paul pushed my chair around and I got a few photos here and there. Even had a fun conversation with a trans individual who noticed my camera and wanted to chat about photography. You never know who you will meet at the library!
When we were done there we headed outside and down a ramp to the Central Avenue underpass and on through to Margaret T. Hance park. I love that underpass area, something about those pillars and the angular Art Moderne decorative style always makes me feel like I’m inside the Mines of Moria! And I was greatly enamored of the birdies down there… Pigeons get a bad rap – I’ve always thought they were such pretty birds! So of course, here’s me having editing fun with the best-of-the-best-with-honors-sir of my pigeon pics:
Coming out of the underpass area into the bright sunshine we were met with a group of skaters. As the sidewalk went literally straight through the middle of their fun, there was no choice but to invade. However, they were not unhappy with being photographed (in fact, they had a guy there capturing video already), and by the time I came back through later, they even came over to look at some of my pics on the camera and were impressed. I was flipping out internally over the serendipity of being able to capture them in action, as I have wanted to get some skateboarding photos for quite a while. Bucket-list item achieved.
There wasn’t too much more to the walk beyond the skateboard area. While the kids went over to the playground and had fun on the swings, we walked in the other direction, around the wide, grassy area of the park, peeking through the fence to catch a glimpse of the Japanese Friendship Gardens on the other side (a tour for another day, perhaps), before heading back to the kids.
As we approached the playground I was just enjoying seeing the kids having outdoor fun. No matter how old you get, swings are awesome.
In between watching the kids, there was the inevitable bird-watching as well. I’m not very good at capturing birds – these are only a handful of a few hundred I took. But I will keep practicing – and I try to remind myself, the professional wildlife photographers take thousands of shots to get that one, perfect, publishable image. So, I’m doing okay.
More kids at play…
And the pigeon finale:
At last we were walked and played and pigeoned out and headed back to the library where we had parked the van. And then, it happened. The van would not start. To be specific, it was not the battery – there was plenty of electricity – but the engine would not engage. After a few tries it was clear we were stuck. Fortunately Laurent was doing nothing but sitting on her couch, enjoying the day off of work, and was happy to come rescue our butts – not once, but twice (because no way could we all fit in her little car). Our hero! Paul had to stay with the van and ride with the tow truck to get it over to our trusty neighborhood mechanic, and afterward he started walking home (a three mile walk, which is on average what he does on his walks most days) so Laurent, having just delivered the second batch of kids to the doorstep, went and picked him up. As a reward for her gracious help, we had her join us for the “lunch” we had planned for the kids after the walk – which turned into more of an early supper. Habit Burger is always a hit – and we could afford it, thanks to Grandma Christmas money! Woohoo!
So yeah, that was our Boxing Day adventure. The van is still in the shop, meaning that Sunday morning Paul went to early mass (in Spanish) with Nat and Lyss, then came home and picked up me, Jordan and Ruben to go to the 9am, while Ellie went with Laurent to the Basilica, and Jacob went with Jeff to St. Edward’s. Never a dull moment around here! This repair is likely going to run into the many hundreds of dollars. What we know so far is that it’s a computer problem. Like, a big computer thingummy that needs to be replaced. Grrr. Wishing for the analog days when these kinds of problems didn’t exist is rather pointless, but at times like this the temptation is strong. Anway, I’m without wheels this week, which – up side, nobody can demand I take them places, but down side – I can’t go anyplace myself. Oh well. God is good, thankful we have the truck (and Laurent nearby!).
