The enormous fancy hotel downtown floods the field next to them, and some local corporations fund it. The skate is free, the skate rentals are free, it's free to sit by either the outdoor or indoor fire pit. I imagine that on colder days, someone sets up a hot-chocolate stand and does bumping business.
Even on a blistering Sunday afternoon in March, when the rink was PACKED, there were enough skates of all sizes that we found skates for everyone.
Not for me. I'm allowed to beg off things, because pregnant. I'm feeling like a ship in full sail these days, and I still have more than two months to go. So Joel took Eleanor out for her first ever spin around the ice. 'I'm skating wiv dad! Look at my ice skaters!'
By which she meant 'ice skates.' She was enormously proud of herself (and, ok, a little bit teary with frustration at a few points. 'It's too slippery for Ahl-nor!' Meaning 'Eleanor.' Meaning her). But mostly she was grimly and grinningly determined.
Free skating is a huge boon when you know you're only going to be out there for twenty minutes. The weather was too nice to be believed, so we went for a walk by the river. Eleanor petted so many dogs she almost couldn't see straight. To a great dane she says, You are a horse!
We went to the park this morning, it was only -5 and not even noon. Eleanor hasn't seen that park since last October. She was SHOUTY with delight.
I never got super excited about spring in BC; the rain just fell at slightly warmer temperatures and maybe some flowers sprouted. But I am DELIRIOUS right now. The weather-hardened side of me is braced for at least one more freeze, if not the perilous -40 of last month, at least the discouraging -25 of most of this winter. But the White Witch's dwarf lurks somewhere nearby, whispering 'This is no thaw. This is spring.'
Now I'm sitting on the couch while Eleanor naps the long nap of the recently-outdoors, and listening to the snow runoff rush down my drain pipe, and exulting. Our street is full of puddles and I have big plans for this afternoon.
They involve bee boots.
4 comments:
"To a great dane she says, You are a horse!"
Ahhhhhhhhhh the cute!
Also the LWW reference. All the points. All the points for you.
It's always good to bring a cucumber when you go ice skating.
I had that very same thought re: the White Witch this afternoon! It got up to TEN DEGREES here today and we all rejoiced and then went directly outside to jump in puddles. Of course, tomorrow we're getting another blizzard, so today was really just a cruel joke, but it is a sign of better things to come.
It doesn't matter if occasionally you don't have pictures. You are going to be so happy later that you wrote down the adorable things she said.
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