Tearing Them Away

The weather Sunday was stunning--mid 70s, perfect sunny sky, spring birds singing.

"Let's go for a bike ride on the nature trail," I said to Darwin.

"Mmm, I don't know.  I was going to do some stuff.  Maybe later?"

"Look," I said, "I've been writing all morning, and I need a break.  I'm going on a ride, and I'd really like it if you came with me."

"Isn't it cold outside?" he hedged.  "Maybe I should put on a sweatshirt."

After much shuffling about and one more cup of coffee, Darwin finally allowed that he was ready to go.  I announced to Maksim that he was coming, too.

"No!" he howled.  "I'm not going anywhere!"

"You're not staying inside on the computer all day when it's this nice out," I pointed out.  "You're coming."

"You can't make me!  You can't--"

"I'm turning off the the wifi," I interrupted.

Pause.  "Fine."

And lo, it came to pass that we climbed into the truck with the bikes in back and headed off.

"Can we stop at Subway or something first?" Darwin interjected.  "Get some sandwiches to take with us?"

I narrowed my eyes.  "You didn't eat breakfast."

"No," he said in a small voice.

"It's way after lunchtime," I said.  "Why didn't you--never mind."

And so we stopped at Subway to get Darwin a sandwich.

At last we arrived at the nature trail, unloaded the bikes, and headed off.  The perfect weather continued, and the sun was warm without being hot in a sky clear as weater.  We biked through wetlands and woods.  We stopped to watch two ganders compete to mate with a goose.  There was much honking, beating of wings, flaring of feathers, and stretching of necks.  Eventually, one gander literally drove the other away and flew back to claim the goose.

"I can hear what the goose is saying," I said.  " 'I don't want EITHER of you.  Buzz off!"

"Yeah," Maksim said.  "She's a lesbian."

"Lesbigoose," I said.  "Or the male will find out she's trans-gander."

Darwin, who was drinking from his bottle at that point, snarfed his water.

A bit later, Maksim spotted a water snake swimming merrily along, and later we saw a duck's nest, a muskrat swimming into his lodge, a turtle sunning itself on a log, and birds galore.

"I don't want to go home," Darwin said at one point.

Even Maksim allowed that the bike ride was a good idea.

The riding trail was relatively crowded because of the weather.  At last we got off the bikes to explore some of the walking trails, where bicycles aren't allowed, and spent considerable time ambling up and down dirt pathways.  Even back there we kept running into scores of people.  Lots and lots and lots of them had dogs, and I'm pleased to report that all the ones we encountered were well-behaved, and--even better--their owners cleaned up after them.

One dad was out with his three little girls, who shouted and squealed with little kid delight or squeamishness whenever they spotted an animal.  We stood at a wooden platform that overlooked a swampy pool with them while Darwin ate his sandwich.  I took a bite from it and yelped.  There was so much salt and pepper on it, my eyes teared up.

"That's what you get for stealing my sandwich," Darwin said.

At long last, we took up the bikes again and pedalled back to the truck.  We did make one more stop on the way home, though, to get ice cream. (!)