A Walk In the Park

Last Friday, the day that Peter and I usually do “research” for the next blog post, I was still feeling a little weak from my bout with pneumonia in Newfoundland. Where could we go that would be fun but not over 10,000 steps? To be honest, I was dreaming of less than 5,000.

It was a beautiful day and Lake Ontario was calling us. We drove to our usual parking area near our favourite picnic table, and discovered that the parking lot was closed for construction! We would have to be flexible. So we drove next door, to an adjacent park, and found a parking spot there.

We sauntered down to the lake, enjoying the views: sailboats, sea-dos, swans, and lots of seagulls. There were plenty of other people too: walkers with baby strollers, lovers meandering along hand in hand, bikers pulling little kids in little wagons, and oldies like us sauntering by. We watched a worker arrive at a perennial garden in a golf cart and begin to weed, obviously enjoying his role as gardener. We saw a little girl anxiously waiting for her mother to hand her a bag of bread, impatient to feed the ducks. Every time her throw was a little short, she yelled “Sorry!” to the ducks. So Canadian.

Then it was time for lunch. Peter offered to walk north to a nearby take-out restaurant and pick up some Thai food, while I waited on a bench. Then our plan was to walk back, since we couldn’t drive, to our favourite picnic table in the first park. I found the perfect bench in the shade and settled down. Soon I began to notice that, not only were cars forbidden from entering the parking lot, but also pedestrians were forbidden from the park too. NO! I saw a construction worker guarding the entrance and I went to have a word with him. How could the entire park be closed down to everyone, cars and people, in the middle of summer? He confirmed that it was.

Feeling very disappointed, I turned around towards my shady bench to wait for Peter with the food, and there, spread out all over my bench, was somebody else! It was almost too much to bear!! OK well maybe that’s a bit too dramatic… So I said to the guy, whom I immediately named Dick, “Do you think I could share a little corner of this bench while I wait a few minutes for my husband?” In a loud voice, he replied:

“NO! I definitely need All of this bench for my stuff. I have a LOT of food.”

“But I will only be a few minutes! As soon as my husband arrives, we will be on our way.”

“NO, definitely Not,” he argued. “There are lots of other benches here that you can have.”

“But they are all in the sun!” I whimpered. By now I was almost in tears.

“Plus I will be smoking a LOT of marijuana. So NO.”

Now I was getting angry. Just beside the bench was a large flat rock, also in the shade. I moved over to the left, about 3 feet, dropped my stuff, and sat down on the rock, defiantly. Dick looked shocked. He couldn’t get rid of me! HA It was a stand-off!

Next he took off his shirt. Where was this going now? He flexed his muscles and strutted over to the garbage can, while I got out my phone to take a photo so you, dear readers, could at least get Dick’s back view. But I was too slow and he almost caught me. I quickly switched the screen to the Wordle puzzle.

And so we continued to play these games – staring, smirking, sneering, snorting, sneaking sideways glances – for almost 20 minutes! Then he let out one final snort, began aggressively packing up all his food and pot, rose up, and marched boldly off. YES!! I moved 3 feet to the right, My right, so to speak, and sat back down on the shady bench.

Not long afterwards, Peter arrived with the food. As we searched for another picnic table, I could hardly wait to tell him about my adventure. Even an innocent walk in the park can be great fodder for a blog post.

Sue

Photo of Dick replaced by CN tower…much more photogenic