Riverblogging2

Just a short walk to the river today, but it yielded two sets of photos. Next entry will likely deal with West Elmira on a sunny morning. This entry was cut short by a trip to West Elmira Optical.

Two words: BIFOCAL CONTACTS!

Not all the bugs are fixed but most of the time I can now wear contacts again. I'm wearing them now, for close, for far, for driving. To church where I must look up to the altar and down at the hymnal. Both Mark Sanders, OD and Carl Bliss, optician, have been personable and knowlegeable. And it's affordable. I can see again without glasses. Summer plagues me with rashes from the glasses, so this is huge for me. Very bright days I still need sunglasses, but generally I get along with wide-brimmed hats instead.

The riverfront area is beautifully clean today. The sun was bright and all was green. We decided to head toward West Elmira this time. Almost immediately Ellie and I noticed the lack of pooper-scooper regulations out here. What a difference one block makes. Come on, Town of Elmira! Your children are playing in dog droppings. If you can't stand to pick up after your pet, you probably are not qualified to own one.

A very stormy spring has cleared almost all the previous-year's brush from the riverfront. When it is dry, walking will be easy, at least initially. Children, joggers and bicycles will keep some paths clean all summer.

When my girls were little we were sometimes able to walk all the way from the Walnut Street Bridge to York Avenue out at the Point, and back along Church or Water Street. Quite a hike, although nicely punctuated by a cold drink and snack at the convenience store at the Point. With the advent of the cell phone, I might even suggest this today to first-time hikers who have a spare hour.

The phone is for rescue: as a partially disabled person, I can recognize a possible problem here. Hiking the paths can be arduous, and some of the muddiness is impassable. If it looks tricky, head back. It's not quicksand, but losing a shoe is not funny. The woods are not for bare or stocking feet. Still, hikers are never more than a block from civilization along the river, all the way to Fitch's Bridge.

By the way, never, never, never swim in the river. The undertow is deadly and some currents are felt long before they are seen. Bodies may take days to turn up, miles downstream.

On that cheerful note, I leave you to the pictures.

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Little Pond