I had about as low-key a Memorial Day Weekend as they come. The weather was dreadful, so I decided that rather than travel or make too much of things, I would finally begin the task of unpacking and house set-up in earnest. This I did. I could easily use 3 or 4 more such weekends to actually finish the task, but it's gettin' there.
The kid and I both were so miserable in the arctic cold on Saturday, I decided we would head inland in search of heat for part of the day on Sunday, and we used the day to hunt down municipal doggie parks in towns between our casa and the Sacto area (that's where the nearest shorts-n-sandals weather was y'all, and we drive through there enough on the way to other places that I am sure to be glad I know where the top tier canine leg-lifting spots are!) That was a good use of the day. Monday was a little warmer, but not warm enough, so a little doggie time was spent out, but mostly, we kept it home a lot. Good livin' was had nonetheless.
Basically, I grabbed our book on dog-friendly places in California, and looked for 4-star dog parks within 90 minutes of Oakland in areas where things were gonna be over 75 degrees. I love California, but the late May through June weather absolutely sucks. So far, we have had it pretty good this year, but losing a huge holiday weekend to the "June Blues" more than evened things up. I grew up in the Upper Midwest. I do understand cold. There is something about NorCal coastal weather in June that feels colder than Chicago in January. I think it is the wind and humidity. It is just impossible to dress for. I did not want to step outside all of Saturday or Sunday because it was so miserable. Sucky. I got lots of stuff done in the house, so it was ok, but by Sunday morn, I was ready to go and see the sun and feel it too.
First we hit Tracy's dog park near the 205. I forgot my camera on that one, but it was pretty standard stuff. Nice, but memorable for its proximity to the interstate, which is key since the 205 can be traffic hell on weekends, and if I have the kid with me and he needs to let fly, it is awesome to have a place like that so handy. From there, we went on up to a fairly large, and quite nice dog park in Lodi.
Lodi may deserve the lashing it got in the CCR song about it, but ya get no gripes from me. This was big and had a nice mix of dogs, including a young Great Dane (I always fall for the small dog meets big dog moment, yet have no good shots of it yet - I gotta try harder!)
After that, we headed to Elk Grove's dog park in their big regional park. It too was nice, though the bigger park around it was better. Exceptional actually. Right near CA99 to boot. From there, we hit Fair Oaks, and that ended up being quite awesome. They had a big area for big dogs, a medium size for small-medium dogs, and then an even smaller spot for old, super-tiny, or infirm dogs. That is one of the few I have seen like that. The place was clean, well-grassed, and there were lots of friendly dogs and owners. Doesn't hurt also that is quite close to US50. I suppose if I spent more time headed to Tahoe or Folsom, I would visit more often, but it was good enough to get me to go out of the way when heading around Sac.
Next up, the C-BarC park in Citrus Heights. I gotta say, the book we got has most things fairly well ranked. They had this as being a good park, and indeed it was. Perhaps the fact it is so close to the nice one at Fair Oaks makes the town & volunteers feel the need to keep up, but they had nice wading pools set up in both the big and small dog parks - essential for that part of the state. The shade was not great in the small dog area, but if it hadn't been so full, I am not sure I would have noticed.
I actually took the youngin' to the big dog side for a bit so we could sit under the trees. I was wanting to get some heavy duty reading done (working on finishing Endgame 1945 by weekend's end, par of my Memorial Day focus), and there were both seats and enough small-medium doggies over there to keep goober busy. We were having a great time until some loser with an out of control pit bull showed up (the dumbass told people it was ok to smack her pit bull to make him stop since that was the only way to get him to calm down and stop attacking people and other dogs! WTF LADY!?! I am supposed to smack your pit bull for you??? Only in the Central Valley!) With that, we bolted.
Almost in every single case, the best doggie parks in the Bay Area are near sewage plants, highways, industrial wastes, former dumps, or at the end of a busy runway. For me, this isn't so much a problem, but if they are going to set up the off-leash super acreage in the areas people tend to not want to use for any other kind of recreation, I am shocked at how few dog parks are near trains. I am desperate to find a place where the kid can run around and I can watch trains-a-go-go! Finally, I have found a place quite close to busy tracks, in Davis. The dog park itself is awesome for being busy with dogs, but even better, it is 25 feet from the Union Pacific mainline to Oakland, right near their interchange with the California Northern. Awesome! Davis is too far to go to just for that dog park, but no way will we ever be on 80 in that hoodie without stopping. I think I will find other parks near hot rail, but so far, this has the best balance of dog density and high-traffic rail. Pt. Isabel is very close to rail, but good views of the trains aren't available from most of the park - not so at Davis. Just one more reason to give big ups to Davis.
Come this morning, it was still cold, but the weather suggested the sun would come out and would be the best weather day of the 3-day weekend. It was much warmer back home, but along the Bay, it was still MF'ing cold! I had to put the kid in his hoodie for us to go out to Pt. Isabel for a walk. He needed to get a longer walk in, and that really is his favorite spot, and on a holiday weekend - cold or not - it was bound to be PACKED with canines. Indeed it was. I am glad we went, and he seemed to be as well, but the wind off the water was surreal cold. Unbelievable. I had long undies on under my t-shirt and hoodie and it still felt like the wind was filleting me - I can only imagine how the hairless tum on the kid felt. He seemed pretty pre-occupied with leg lifting and butt-sniffing to care, and frankly, by the time we left, so was I.
One of my big projects, which the nice weather today allowed me to undertake, was to get out on the deck setup the astroturf as well as get the new thistle bird feeder swept up and set up. I had tested putting a small one out earlier, and hot damn!!!! The finches blitzed! It was thistle-hulls piled up like sand dunes after just a few days. I wanted to not only get the new seed sleeve put up, but I picked up some astro-turf for the part of the deck under the canopy so that the kitties could be comfortable out there (the nails on the boards aren't all even and pounded flush and they seem aggravated by them, so I thought I would find an outside-safe carpet for them, and the astro-turf was on sale at OSH - what can I say?) The minute it was down, the kitties were out and taking in the arrival of the finch feeding frenzy which followed the hanging of the new thistle sleeve.
I don't know the finches well enough to know all the different ones we have had visit. I know the Goldfinch is a regular, and I am also quite sure we have had Lesser Goldfinch, however, there are at least 2 or 3 other birdies visiting that I can't identify (lots of them are tough to distinguish, especially with the females.) My hummingbird feeder at the new place is an under-performer so far, but I am totally sold on putting out a lil' somethin' for the finches. It is better than TV, especially when they are up there taunting the cats!
Ultimately, I did more packing and unpacking of clothes and paperwork than fun stuff like bird seed and astroturf. The kid got some time in at Pt. Isabel and Alameda early on, and he sat in the sun a little on the porch (he loves rolling around on astroturf and indoor putting greens), but mostly, he just got under the blankets and slept the day away.
I myself am going to try to speed read to the end of my book so I can start a new one with the new week. I am likely going to go through another few war books (it is dawning on me why I have been so into WWII lately - more later), but I have two other ones totally not about WWII which I picked up and can't wait to get to (Who Is Mark Twain? and White Tiger, which I read the first few pages of and thought was so phat it was going to be how I get away from the WWII stuff once I finish the ones I have going.) I could try to get into something ponderous about how seriously I take Memorial Day, but I won't. I have done it before and it isn't important for y'all to be sure I take the holiday's reason to heart as much as it is for me to be sure. I am slowly getting my brain around what this last cycle of obsession with war has been about, and I it isn't as unhealthy as I had thought at first. It isn't great, but it isn't perverse (I am not entertained by it, for example.) In any event, it is time to put the peckin' pad away and get the book out to finish the weekend with a flourish of mental stimulation. It keeps the intellectual torpor of the work week from being able to dry and set before the next weekend's burst of life starts the cycle of actual living all over again.