Ice Skating Hopes Dashed then Resurrected

Yesterday was my partner Mary’s birthday, and I wanted to make sure that the present I got her was more about experiences we share together and less about accumulating more stuff. Stuff is the bane of so many of us, that we pile up into our stuffed closets, our rented storage spaces, and that we trip over in our crowded houses.

So I chose my birthday gift with care–thinking, what can I give you that is more about what we do together in our lives than another piece of clothing, jewelry or shoes to add to your collections? I thought about how much we like doing active things together. Taking bike rides on the bike paths, walking the dog, and kayaking the rivers. But it’s February, damn it!

So I bought two pairs of ice skates–traditional white figure skates for her and a pair of rugged hockey skates for me. I presented her with the gift by opening my car trunk with a flourish–sorry they’re not wrapped but I wanted to show her both pairs, not just hers.

We drove to our gyms past gleaming white ponds right next to the road. All the while I kept thinking how wonderful it would to be to glide over those smooth white surfaces. For some reason a rink going round and round doesn’t thrill me like a pond. A frozen big pond or lake with lots of area to skate in and discover.

In my reverie, we drove home on I-91 and saw a big crowd of police, divers and even a state police helicopter hovering overhead. Someone, it seems, tried to use their ice sailboat on one of the big ponds dug when they built the highway–and it nearly fell all the way into the water.

Hopes of skating there dashed, I took solace when I read a Facebook update from the Ashfield Lake House. People are skating on Ashfield Lake. Yessssss!!