there was a leaf that seemed more like snake skin

Late this afternoon I took a walk to a park a few blocks from my home. It's tucked in a bend in the river––well, everything in this town is in a river bend––where there's good geese watching, some days. Not today, this grey and misty day.

I had the idea to walk to a park because last week I went to my friend's artist lecture at the local historical museum and he talked about rediscovering parks now that he has young kids. I walked past my old elementary school, past the track I did cool down laps on for cross country, past the sledding hill, and to the park I went to as a child and which was covered in water when I moved home.

google had no dome-shaped swing set and it's surprisingly hard to draw....

The only part of the playground equipment that's still the same are the swings. The swing set is dome shaped, which is great because you know how you're always kicking people when you want to twist up in your swing or go from side to side rather than front to back? Not so with the circular/dome shaped swing set! You can have your pals at your side and flail around as much as you want. I swung for a while watching the fog creep around in the bushes at the base of the railroad bridge and the cold, dark water running past.

No, the river is actually rather slow. Make that the cold, dark water walking past.

I notice some things keenly moving back here as an adult. Many of the higher traffic roads are in poor condition. They're repaired by patches so that in the end you have piecemeal sections of tar and concrete dissolving into gravel and stubbly grass. With today's cool, grey cloak of mist it seems that if I could cut out a square of road and hang it on the wall I'd have some fine art. But then it'd be stuck as is, not subject to further weathering and development of pot holes and I like it better that way.

I'm making my town seem like seedy industrial or rural decay. Really, it's nice, it's clean, we make do.

Another thing I notice keenly is that most swings are not designed for my adult lady hips.