Central Park

Went for a small wanderance in Central Park this afternoon. Walked past the Central Park Zoo and the seals that seemed to be enjoying the sun while swimming around in their aquarium.

Upon this walk I realized how much I hate strollers. You know the strollers I am talking about. The ones that hold a single child in it either asleep, awake, or throwing a temper tantrum cause they wanted this or that. The major problem I have with the strollers, besides holding whiny children, is that it seems to slow down the mothers and fathers who push them. Perhaps it is the large bags of brick a brack that these wonderful parents have loaded the stroller down with. Anywho, they are just dead slow. Add to the problem that it is hard to pass them when in a crowd, nevermind when there are two strollers across.

Welcome to New York City, the city of pedestrians. Along with pedestrians today comes strollers. It also angers me that these wonderful people who push the strollers take the subway. Now lets stop here for a moment. Lets remember when the New York City subway system was built mostly. Yup, the subway system started in 1904, way before someone even dreamed up the obnoxious idea of a stroller. Therefore, many of the stations were built over or were not configured for the idea of an elevator. In fact, the idea of anybody needing devices like wheelchairs wasn't even thought of. Thus, many stairways are narrow and, in some cases, twisty and turney.

Now back to the ongoing saga. I, being the strapping young man that I am, are called upon to help out the poor shmucks who get off at stations without working elevators in order to lift the front end of the strollers (as well as everysingle package on the stroller including child sometimes) and walk up the stairs.

Even better is when the parent wants to attend to the screaming occupant of the stroller in downtown Manhatten. You see in Manhatten every single inch of sidewalk space is required in order to maintain a certain flow of pedestrian traffic. Add a single stopped stroller in the middle of the sidewalk, and chaos looms. It is not just people with strollers that stop in the middle of the sidewalk though that bother me, pedestrians that stop on a dime to look at the windows or some strange building. ARGH!

Anyway, I got on a tangent there with that whole stroller thingy. Back to Central Park. I walked through enjoying the beautiful old trees and clean walkways into the Rambler bird section. I walked up and around a couple of trails until I ran into a dozen people with their binoculors and expensive cameras out looking at, you won't believe it, simple American Goldfinches. I was flabbergasted. One of the most common birds that fight over the bird feeders back home in Canada.

I continued on up through the park admiring the wildnerness within a city of over 12 million people and yet it was very peaceful, except for the strollers! ARGH!