Time Alone

 It's that time of year; the lights go up in Hubbard Park next week.

Visit #1279, Saturday 21 November 20, 6:45-8:45AM, 3.3miles, 12.2lbs. of litter.

Temps in the 40's rising to the 50's, sunny.

I arrived at Hubbard Park early Saturday morning expecting the usual, but I didn't get it.

Due to the parks crews installing the Christmas light displays, all entrances to the park were blocked off. The only parking available was at the skate house which holds a dozen vehicles, tops. Good thing I arrived early in the morning, as I managed to find an open spot.

To bring you up to date: Between May and October 2018 graffiti started to appear on a water department building near the two retention ponds. I painted over the graffiti on the yellow building using gray paint.

It took a couple years, but the water department finally tired of my contrasting paint and covered my gray with a reasonably matching yellow.

But they didn't bother to take the 15 seconds to walk around the entire building and cover ALL the gray paint, leaving one eyesore.

Today I finished their job.

Last week I brought swatches from the paint store to best match the existing color. I wasn't messing around!

I picked what I thought was the closest match and bought a quart.

Starting early on Saturday morning, I figured fewer people would see and question what I was doing. Today's bonus was, with access to the park restricted, my chances of encountering anyone were greatly reduced.

I headed straight there, laid out my kit, and went to work.

To compare, here's the water department's color choice for their patch job.

It took me a mere 15 minutes from set up to clean up, with a flowing brook nearby to wash the latex paint off my equipment.

I doffed my coveralls and continued with my regular litter hunting duties, canvassing the trails on the south side of I-691. I pretty much had the trails to myself, since all the entrances were cordoned off.

By the way, those are my new, replacement hedge clippers painted garish colors so hopefully they'll be easy to find if I lose them again.

The Hubbard Park lights are scheduled to turn on November 25th. Drive by and enjoy them, while observing Covid courtesies.