Passing On

After my weekly duties in Hubbard Park, I attended a memorial service at the Hubbard Park bandshell for Dwight Needles. At the service, I learned he was quite the Renaissance man, as well as being liked by all.

Among Dwight's many accomplishments, he created that trail maps of the various parks in Meriden, Including Hubbard Park. I managed to get my hands on a good quantity of them, which I keep in my backpack and handout whenever I see that puzzled, lost look on people, which just so happened on Saturday while policing the trails. They are invaluable for creating goodwill and a positive image for the city. I like to think I'm spreading a piece of Dwight around with every map I hand out. Meriden needs more people like Dwight.

Another thing that passed on, albeit much less important, was my pedometer. This is the 3rd or 4th pedometer which wound up in the washing machine, and came out not only dizzy but not working.
I may be through with pedometers as it's getting expensive every time I brain fart and leave it in my pants.

Visit #1145, Wednesday 4 July 18, 6:40-7:50AM.
Temps in the 70's; very humid and in the midst of a heatwave.

Speaking of farts, on Independence Day I decided to hit the trail early at the behest of my "boss for the week", who doesn't like the heat. Last week I reported on my less than satisfactory attempt to remove some graffiti from a brick building on the road toward Merimere Reservoir. To give my boss a change of pace where we walk, I brought him along to supervise as I took another shot at removing the graffiti.

As you can see, I didn't remove it well enough the first go 'round.

I armed myself with Goof Off, a spray bottle of water, and some persuasion.

This is what it looked like just prior to a proper rinse.

The boss kept an eye on me to ensure I didn't slack off.

Visit #1146, Saturday 7 July 18, 8:00-9:30AM.
Temps in the 70's, sunny and dry.

The heatwave wimpered out on Friday with nary a thunderstorm to usher in the nicer weather which Paul Bernier and I enjoyed on Saturday.

As promised, I hauled my chainsaw along to remove a couple problems which cropped up recently.

Here I put the gloves on prior to brawling with the woods. Watch out!

This branch, which had been getting progressively lower and lower, had to go.

As Paul and I moved on toward our next fight, we discovered our Bible-thumping graffiti artist is at it again. Last time I encountered them was 3 June 18. I'll tend to this in a week or two.

We reached the next tree, which had fallen into the trail.

Last, this tree wasn't going to straighten up so I removed it.

Crossing the walkbridge over I -691, I checked on the progress of the weed killer I sprayed on the vines covering the fence. It may not look pretty but it was necessary.

One of the flags on the I-691 walkbridge is torn unserviceable. I removed it.

Paul and I returned to the parking lot to deposit our trash, we parted ways, and I then attended Dwight's memorial service.

I leave you this week with a photo from last week during the heat wave, where the humidity hung over Merimere Reservoir. Enjoy the more reasonable weather this week.