The Circus is in Town

At our house, Saturdays are cleaning days. The kids clean their rooms and I attempt to clean the rest of the house. Needless to say, it takes some persuading on my part to get them in gear and to follow through with their tasks. This past Saturday was no exception. They did, to my surprise, complete their chores however. As a reward, they decided they wanted to go to the park. Since it was a really nice day out, it was agreeable.

So, after lunch, we loaded up the van and proceeded to the park of their choice. After arriving at our destination without incident, the kids filed out and raced off to the playground area. By the time my wife and I made it to the playground, our kids were already engaged in play. We both looked around for a free bench to sit on, but could find none. All were occupied. After a closer inspection of the playground and immediately surrounding area, we agreed that the circus must be in town. There were far too many freaky people wandering about to be the usual cross section from town.

You may call us paranoid, crazy or any other similar term of your choosing, but when it comes to our kids, we are very watchful of them, especially at the park. And this day was no exception. We had our work cut out for us.

On one bench was an older man dressed in a camouflage shirt, hat, and jacket and was staring at everyone. At the tire swing was kid that had a five o'clock shadow, black leather jacket and fedora hat pushing some younger kids. In a flat grass area were five or six young teen boys engaged in what appeared to be a reenactment of Enter the Dragon, but without the costumes. There was also a bearded lady and a guy that appeared to be half man and half woman. I will leave it up to you to figure out what half was what..

We stayed there about an hour and then rounded up the fruits of our loins and headed back to the van. The kids were eager to get back home and watch another showing of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" courtesy of a DVD from Netflix.

That will pretty much be our last time at that park for some time because the geese were already making it their winter home. With all those geese enjoying the lakes, they make the park impossible to walk anywhere without stepping in goose poop. After the geese, the poop, and the circus is gone, we shall return.