Who Knew There Are Mosquitoes in St. Catharines? - July 21, 2020
It was another of the “There is the day you plan … and the day that happens…” This happened two weeks ago…
So the plan was for the Park-Stevens and the Carrie-Stevens to drive to Belleville and visit Granny Marj and then come back.
I was up at 5:45 a.m. to get my jog-walk in. Then I packed our lunch and a mini overnight bag in case something happened – cuz things do, otherwise there’d be no Sunshine stories - and we needed to stay over. Enroute to pick up the kids when we realized we had to gas up the van. Thank heavens for that “ping” sound.
And the phone rang… It’s never a good sign when the phone rings before 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. My very dear brother Jim was calling to let me know Mom wasn’t feeling well – he knew we were planning to visit. I phoned her and we agree there were many other days to pick from.
But it did mean a change to our day. We arrived at the Park-Stevens and let them know we weren’t going to Belleville. Wee Jasper (almost 3) was crestfallen. He loves his Granny Marj AND he loves her unique toys – many of which are, by now, collectibles.
We offered to take Jazz for the morning and for lunch. His parents had many things they could now get done without their boss-helper. Laur said to me when we got in the car, “And what exactly are we going to do?” We had remembered to get the “Beep Jeep” – aka the stroller – so I suggested “a walk.” But where? We had done all the local walks with Jasper on many occasions and the sun was blazing hot in spite of the rain last night.
Back to our apartment for a few minutes to get things for our walk. Jasper was really keen to play with the toys. Instead, Grumpa Laur and Jazz settled in to read a Pete the Cat and a Pigeon book. If you have little kids or grandkids, you’ll know all about these books.
“Time to go!” I announced. And Jasper looked ultra disappointed again. He hadn’t had a chance to place with the toys yet. But I’m all about getting out and getting exercise. “Happy Gram, Happy Fam!” I bribed him with healthy popcorn crackers. He’s young enough to think they are as good as potato chips. (This phase won’t last for long.)
But where could we go that was shaded and that Jasper had never been to before? We opted to go the Allanburg bridge and walk along the canal trail about 2 km on one path, then return on a parallel one. A bit of a loop.
A few things we didn’t consider ahead of time…
1. It was super-boring for Jasper. Just a bunch of trees and the odd bike-rider. We had the intent that he would walk and run most of it and only ride in the beep-jeep when he got tired. Well he got bored of the scenery and scared of the bikers pretty fast so into the stroller he went.
2. On steamy days in the woods, the mosquitoes run wild and they love hot little kids. Jasper started going frantic. I said to hubs, “If we go super fast, we can avoid them.” Laur says, “I planned for a leisurely walk. I’m wearing my sandals and didn’t bring my knee brace.” Gram was getting less happy.
3. It started to rain. POURING! We hadn’t checked the weather report for this part of the Niagara Peninsula. Thankfully Laur had packed three umbrellas. We stuck one over Jasper in the stroller and put up ours. Laur pushed with one hand and held his umbrella with the other. I held mine in one hand and held Jasper’s umbrella over his stroller.
Jasper wasn’t exactly thrilled. His umbrella was “too wobbly!” Laur wasn’t thrilled. He is out of practice pushing with one hand. And I wasn’t thrilled. I kept getting driven into the grass and weeds.
Oh well, we were coming to the place where we could loop back on a different path – Jasper could see the canal from that one and there would be fewer bugs. But things had completely overgrown. We’d be wading through a thick tick heaven.
4. Could things get any worse? They sure could – it started thundering and lightening. Laur said, “I sure hope this isn’t an electrical storm.” It was not likely the best time for me to tell him, “All thunderstorms are electrical storms.”
We raced back to the van as best we could. In a three legged race – which is pretty much what we were having – we’d have come in last.
To salvage the morning, we decided to take Jasper to McDonalds and get him a Happy Meal. The drive-through line was out to the road and then some. We finally got his meal, got him home, and he took one bite of the chicken and was done. I tried all the tricks that didn’t work on my kids either. “Oh, chicken is so sad you aren’t eating him.” “Grumpa’s going to eat your fries…” “Yum yum yoghurt is dancing!” “Milk is MOOing…” Sound weird to you? Even weirder for me – I’m vegan!
Nothing was going to stand in the way of Jasper Playing with those toys that he’d been waiting two hours to have fun with.
When he got bored of that in about 10 minutes – we need to ramp up our toy selection – I read Jasper two books. One called Millions of Cats (about cats cannibalizing themselves.) And The Little Engine That Could (which I subtitle, “Never ask a man to do a boys’s job – ask a girl.” Yes, the Little Engine is a female!)
All is well that ends well. At least it was well for us. We’d run out of ways to entertain Jasper and were ready to rest. We brought him home to his parents! 😊
So the plan was for the Park-Stevens and the Carrie-Stevens to drive to Belleville and visit Granny Marj and then come back.
I was up at 5:45 a.m. to get my jog-walk in. Then I packed our lunch and a mini overnight bag in case something happened – cuz things do, otherwise there’d be no Sunshine stories - and we needed to stay over. Enroute to pick up the kids when we realized we had to gas up the van. Thank heavens for that “ping” sound.
And the phone rang… It’s never a good sign when the phone rings before 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning. My very dear brother Jim was calling to let me know Mom wasn’t feeling well – he knew we were planning to visit. I phoned her and we agree there were many other days to pick from.
But it did mean a change to our day. We arrived at the Park-Stevens and let them know we weren’t going to Belleville. Wee Jasper (almost 3) was crestfallen. He loves his Granny Marj AND he loves her unique toys – many of which are, by now, collectibles.
We offered to take Jazz for the morning and for lunch. His parents had many things they could now get done without their boss-helper. Laur said to me when we got in the car, “And what exactly are we going to do?” We had remembered to get the “Beep Jeep” – aka the stroller – so I suggested “a walk.” But where? We had done all the local walks with Jasper on many occasions and the sun was blazing hot in spite of the rain last night.
Back to our apartment for a few minutes to get things for our walk. Jasper was really keen to play with the toys. Instead, Grumpa Laur and Jazz settled in to read a Pete the Cat and a Pigeon book. If you have little kids or grandkids, you’ll know all about these books.
“Time to go!” I announced. And Jasper looked ultra disappointed again. He hadn’t had a chance to place with the toys yet. But I’m all about getting out and getting exercise. “Happy Gram, Happy Fam!” I bribed him with healthy popcorn crackers. He’s young enough to think they are as good as potato chips. (This phase won’t last for long.)
But where could we go that was shaded and that Jasper had never been to before? We opted to go the Allanburg bridge and walk along the canal trail about 2 km on one path, then return on a parallel one. A bit of a loop.
A few things we didn’t consider ahead of time…
1. It was super-boring for Jasper. Just a bunch of trees and the odd bike-rider. We had the intent that he would walk and run most of it and only ride in the beep-jeep when he got tired. Well he got bored of the scenery and scared of the bikers pretty fast so into the stroller he went.
2. On steamy days in the woods, the mosquitoes run wild and they love hot little kids. Jasper started going frantic. I said to hubs, “If we go super fast, we can avoid them.” Laur says, “I planned for a leisurely walk. I’m wearing my sandals and didn’t bring my knee brace.” Gram was getting less happy.
3. It started to rain. POURING! We hadn’t checked the weather report for this part of the Niagara Peninsula. Thankfully Laur had packed three umbrellas. We stuck one over Jasper in the stroller and put up ours. Laur pushed with one hand and held his umbrella with the other. I held mine in one hand and held Jasper’s umbrella over his stroller.
Jasper wasn’t exactly thrilled. His umbrella was “too wobbly!” Laur wasn’t thrilled. He is out of practice pushing with one hand. And I wasn’t thrilled. I kept getting driven into the grass and weeds.
Oh well, we were coming to the place where we could loop back on a different path – Jasper could see the canal from that one and there would be fewer bugs. But things had completely overgrown. We’d be wading through a thick tick heaven.
4. Could things get any worse? They sure could – it started thundering and lightening. Laur said, “I sure hope this isn’t an electrical storm.” It was not likely the best time for me to tell him, “All thunderstorms are electrical storms.”
We raced back to the van as best we could. In a three legged race – which is pretty much what we were having – we’d have come in last.
To salvage the morning, we decided to take Jasper to McDonalds and get him a Happy Meal. The drive-through line was out to the road and then some. We finally got his meal, got him home, and he took one bite of the chicken and was done. I tried all the tricks that didn’t work on my kids either. “Oh, chicken is so sad you aren’t eating him.” “Grumpa’s going to eat your fries…” “Yum yum yoghurt is dancing!” “Milk is MOOing…” Sound weird to you? Even weirder for me – I’m vegan!
Nothing was going to stand in the way of Jasper Playing with those toys that he’d been waiting two hours to have fun with.
When he got bored of that in about 10 minutes – we need to ramp up our toy selection – I read Jasper two books. One called Millions of Cats (about cats cannibalizing themselves.) And The Little Engine That Could (which I subtitle, “Never ask a man to do a boys’s job – ask a girl.” Yes, the Little Engine is a female!)
All is well that ends well. At least it was well for us. We’d run out of ways to entertain Jasper and were ready to rest. We brought him home to his parents! 😊