Saturday In The Park? Not this Weekend

Every once in a while I wake up singing songs from the past.  This morning I caught myself fumbling through the words for “Saturday In The Park.” by Chicago.  Its not the fourth of July, I’m not living in Chicago, so the only logical explanation is that Saturday is here.  As it is 7 in the morning there are not many people laughing or dancing in my house. In fact, with the exception of Surf the Wonder Dog and my self they are all sleeping.  As the song continues to bounce through my head I find myself coming out of the sleepy fog I was in, my mind beginning to work, and a smile coming to my face.  I remember a cross country trip with my Dad, moving all of my Grandma’s stuff from California to Illinois.  Her car pulling a huge U-Haul We broke down before we even got across the boarder to Nevada.  Leaving her stuff behind we continued to our  drive through the Rockies, the Corn Fields of Nebraska, and into the land of Lincoln. What I remember most is my Dad laughing during the trip, and his Chicago tape playing in the background, over and over again (he didn’t care much for my Journey or Kansas tapes).

Its been awhile since I took a trip like that with my kids.  We did the “Surprise drive to Disneyland, next day at Magic Mountain, then back home, Marathon Trip".”  Evan and I did the “Drive through Montana, look for a college trip.”  We went to San Francisco on our “See Katee act, buy pipes, two flat tire, trip.”  And a year ago we did the “In Search of In-And-Out Burgers/Stop at Every Skate Park on the Northern California and Southern Oregon Coast trip.”  But even with those trips, I am finding myself needing to skip town with my kids, to head out on a new adventure for a few days, a week, or a month.  Something edgy like rock climbing, or back backing, or climbing Mount Hood.  Funny that having a song surface in your mind can take you down a path like that.

This Saturday in the Park will be no walk in the park.  The agenda is set.  Our Home Owners Association has graciously purchased a big metal dumpster of the enormous kind, to entice us all to do a yard spring cleaning.  Time to rake up leaves, prune branches, trim the hedge that is out of control, do some weeding, set up the back deck, and figure out what our summer, house to do list, will look like.  If we work hard this weekend, I won’t have to make a dump run this summer (Thanks HOA).  I will be able to sit back and just make sure the yard is watered, the deck is swept, and the Hot Tub stays running.  The smell of steak and chicken will soon be competing with the aroma of my cigars and those who join me in partaking. The cooler on the back deck will be full of an assortment of Oregon Micro Brews.  This one weekend of hard labor will be worth the benefit of relaxing over the next few weekends.  So while it won’t be Saturday In The Park today, I will soon be enjoying Saturday At the Beach, Saturday On a Hike, Saturday In the Mountains, Saturday In Seattle, You name it, I will be trying to do it on a Saturday.  Who knows I may even take one of those wild “Long” Weekend Trips with my kids to a neighborhood near you, because I spent this Saturday, in the yard.  May you use your Saturday wisely.