A Scrappy Christmas walk

So we got all dressed up (because Daddy can't handle the temps as well as he did a year ago), and I put on the new gloves that wonderful son o'mine got me for Christmas:

And set out.  Scrappy first wanted to stop off at the rocks that mark the only thing they left when they decided that a wild meadow wasn't as necessary as an 18th and 19th soccer field:

And then moved on across said soccer fields.

Looks nice, don't it?  Too bad the brain surgeons that came up with the project failed to take into account- this is a WETLAND.  The woods sits on a ridge that half drained into the meadow.  It stays soggy long after better drained areas are completely dry.  And, they didn't install any drain tiles.  Just bulldozed, flattened, and compacted.

Think they MIGHT have a problem when they go to play in the spring?

Anyhow, at this point we dealt with the first of two problems we encountered.  It seems when I cinched up my belt prior to leaving, I missed the belt hole, and said belt was now disengaging itself.  No, no pictures for this one.

So we come into the woods, where that nice trail that they just constructed is having the same problem as the fields, for the same reason.

Which, of course, didn't stop Scrappy from enjoying the first ice of his year:

Or his enjoyment of the woods as a whole.

So down the ravine trail we went, and I've never seen it this wet in the ravine:

Into the plex we went, and as we crossed the wooden bridge, four young joggers passed us.  Scrappy was oblivious.  Down the trail behind the IPFW soccer field, around to the point where they had to jump the fence into the closed field.  Down the field to where they could jump the fence again and continue along the river.  All the time, Scrappy is oblivious- until they head back along the river, the farthest point away they'd been the whole time.

And then, he notices.

One last, lonely soccer ball.  Goodbye, socceristas!


Scrappy wishes everybody a Merry Christmas!