Diversions

Visit #1061, Sunday 26 February 17, 7:10-8:50AM, 3.4 miles.
Temps in the 30's, mostly cloudy with a chilly breeze.

Every once in a while my weekly agenda in Hubbard Park gets grabbed by the horns and wrestled in a direction that wasn't planned. This was one of those weeks.

I planned on a simple clockwise loop of the trails, starting at the parking lot by the playscape and picking up the trail behind the bank of daffodils. I began to collect so much litter and it consumed so much time that there was no way I would be able to cover the distance of that clockwise loop in a reasonable amount of time.

I can only assume the excessive amount of trash I picked up was buried under snow all winter, which means I must have slacked off in my duties, prior to the snow cover. Guess you can call me a slacker!

So I spent Sunday covering all the trails on the south side of I-691, closer to the park.

By the time I reached the small parking area in the northwest corner of the park near Mirror Lake, I'd already accumulated a full bag and had to return to the parking lot to drop it off.

A couple gems I found among the usual:

Clue me in; is this figurine related to Wallace and Gromit?

Can't forget the obligatory condom shot!

Dropping off that first bag o' trash.

Then I turned around and "litteraly" picked up (pun intended-sometimes I kill myself!) where I left off.

I walked the trail all the way to West Main Street/Belmont Avenue then turned around and hiked different trails back to the park.

Enroute, I came upon this business card secured to the rock.

I think this is worse than last week's flags because it's blatant advertising of an organization.

So, I sent the following note to the member's e-mail address which was printed on the back, and sent a similar version to the church itself:

"I volunteer in Hubbard Park, Meriden, maintaining the trails on a weekly basis. See my blog at hubbardpark.blogspot.com . On Sunday I came upon one of your church's "business cards" conveniently placed on a rock on the trail.

You don't have the right to advertise your church in public parks. Not only is it tasteless, it's tantamount to littering. People don't go to the park to enjoy the advertising. I'll consider it an innocent mistake. Please discontinue this practice.

Thanks!"

Back at the park, I continued to be amused by my findings. Since I was walking back to the parking lot on the road around Mirror Lake, I thought I'd continue to make myself useful and I picked up trash within the park itself. I came upon this little "shrine" as I don't know what else to call it.

Back at the parking lot, I dropped off my second bag of trash and called it a day. Yeah; I found the bucket too, and filled it with the cardboard.

I'll have to leave this week's curtailed plans for next week.