Easy Glider.

I’m weary of Winter and over-wary of ice, so this morning’s dry pavement beckoned me to venture out. Even that small sliver of sun in the sky made the wicked wind chill not seem so bad.

Although snow was predicted for three days in a row, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the northern ‘burbs got socked with a lot of snow, and we just had a wintry precip.

The car needed a little run, so I figured I’d roll past Council Point Park to see if anyone was on the trail, because that meant the perimeter path was not ice-covered and slick. I saw one guy running, so I pulled into the parking lot and figured I’d give it a go, feeling confident as I was wearing my lug-soled hiking boots because I didn’t want to end up as an “Easy Slider”.

There was no peanut pal welcoming committee as I arrived, so I don’t know if they figured I’d abandoned them, or merely decided to stay tucked in their cozy nests. I presume the latter and I really couldn’t blame them with the 25-degree air temperature and a biting wind chill in the teens. I even took out a Ziploc bag of peanuts and jiggled it vigorously to entice them, but there still were no takers, not even Parker who usually is at the head of the pack. Ah, well ... I just slipped those peanuts back in my pocket until tomorrow, or for this sunny weekend the weather folks are promising us.

I’m still not totally “de-burred” from Sunday’s brush with the burrs by the water’s edge. I was forced to pluck each pesky piece of burr from my wool gloves with a pair of tweezers, but evidently some tiny remnants still remain, since every so often I feel a little stab in the pads of my fingers. Next time I’ll pay more attention to my surroundings before heading willy-nilly through the swamp grass!

I was the only person at the Park since the runner left just as I was walking to the pavilion area. I saw this Canada goose gliding gracefully at the Creek. I followed its journey along the water’s edge. One time it looked right at me and briefly I wondered if it was going to take an attitude, like the swan the other day, but then it turned around and just paddled along, seemingly oblivious to my presence.

I could not help but notice how its sleek black head was moving in a back-and-forth motion, as if those jerky movements would help to propel its body forward. It was as if it was paddling along in sync to music – hmm, a groovin’ goose!

You can see at the photo up top, how the water was parting behind this goose as it paddled along at a fairly good clip. There were no ducks or other geese this morning, so it was quite a blissful walk at the Park, with the only noises being the occasional birdsong or the Downy woodpecker drilling into his favorite tree.

Just as I was enjoying the ambiance and the very faint appearance by the sun, the sleet started. At first it was just a few specks of icy pellets which stung my nose and cheeks and pinged off my eyeglasses. I picked up the pace a bit, but then those icy pellets began to fly in earnest. So, I cut my walk short, hightailed it across the grass and headed for the parking lot. I arrived home with the car tucked into the garage just as the sleet started going sideways.

So, I added about 1 ½ miles to my 2018 tally and gained some ruddy-looking cheeks as well.

You can catch up on my blog posts before I started blogging at Patch in August 2013 by going here: http://lindaschaubblog.net/