Repetition

A view of Castle Craig many don't get to see-from the Parks Maintenance Facility.

Visit #1057, Saturday 28 January 17, 11:45AM-3:00PM, 3.8 miles.

Temps in the high 30's with periods of sun and clouds and a brisk wind.

Today I performed my annual clean-up of the embankment between I-691 and the playscape area. People park against the fence and toss litter over it, and trash from the highway gets blown down the hill, making such a visible area look unsightly. Too bad the city couldn't get a chain link fence installed at the top of the slope to hold the trash back. I'd suggest a sound barrier, but it's been brought to my attention that would block the view of Hubbard Park from the highway, which would be bad publicity during the winter light festival.

But before I began my work, I had something else to tend to.

Last week I noticed graffiti on the liner of one of the water retention ponds. I walked up the Soap Box Derby track to take care of it.

Sorry Wally; I don't really love you.

My black spray paint actually did a better job than the photos depict; I doubt you'll notice it from the road. The paint went on reasonably well despite the low temps and the breeze.

Now on to the real work.

I repeatedly walked up and down that slope, left to right, picking up trash. Fill a bag, toss it over the fence, and start another. Doing "reps" up and down that hill was a good leg workout.

Find of the Week #1 was this purse.

Nothing of value was left; only some courtesy cards and personal effects. Both checkbooks were empty and the wallet was missing. The purse was obviously tossed there many years ago because anything in print was illegible. Ah, but the owner's identity...

My guess is Donna's purse was stolen and tossed some time prior to the card expiring, unless she kept the card for sentimental reasons.

A better Find of the Week was this sponge, still in its factory packaging. I'm currently removing wallpaper in my condo, so this sponge will come in handy.

In my continuing studies of what people drink at Dunkin' Donuts, I came upon this "also ran" in the calorie department, having only 3 creams. In the sugar department, they were a contender.

Then I found what must be the CHAMPEEN the cream department with ELEVEN! That's 220 Calories in cream ALONE. The "Yellow Sweetener" is actually Splenda. Splenda apparently refused to pay advertising fees to Dunkin' Donuts, hence the generic description. The "yellow" refers to the color of the Splenda packet.

Once done, I schlepped all nine bags of trash, two wheel covers, and some car parts, over to the dumpster at the Parks Maintenance Facility. I think I put on most of today's mileage walking back and forth to the dumpster.