|
Basketball star Shaquille O'Neal has recently been devoting a lot of time to fighting online sex predators, the kind of people who arrange sexual liaisons with teenagers and kids. It's a laudable desire, to want to help put a stop to what is perhaps the biggest scourge of the internet. But Shaq, being Shaq, still makes it funny... "I put a lot into it," he said, "and when I am done playing, I plan on going undercover and then being the sheriff or chief of police somewhere, either Miami or Orlando, I don't know yet." Undercover. He plans on going undercover. For those who don't know basketball, Shaquille O'Neal is 7'1" and weighs 325 lbs. His face has been all over television during basketball games as well as any number of commercials. He's on billboards, busses, Wheaties boxes and in a couple of very bad movies. It's like Jay Leno saying he's going to do some undercover narcotics work for the LAPD. Today was gorgeous, so Amy and I took off for High Park. I've mentioned the park before...it's just a few blocks west of Roncesvalles, and it's a huge tract of land. There are trails where you'd swear you were deep in the woods, and manicured gardens of neatly trimmed bushes and orderly rows of flowers. There's a restaurant, tennis and basketball courts, swimming pools, a small zoo (see this entry) and the large Grenadier Pond. It's an ideal place to go if you're in need of some green...a huge lawn that I don't have to mow! There were a lot of people there today who had the same idea, but the park is laid out in such a way that you never see more than a tiny slice of the whole...even full the park feels intimate and isolated. Amy and I, of course, did our best impression of a little old couple...she took her knitting, I took a book. We sat on a hilltop bench overlooking Grenadier Pond and sipped milkshakes. Life is good. When our bums started to smart from the hard wood of the bench we wandered down to the pond and walked along the shore. The park was alive with birds...Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks (some of both with babies) and Mute Swans dotted the shoreline and water. They were kept company by Red-winged Blackbirds (lots of these), Starlings, Grackles, an Eastern Kingbird and a brilliantly orange Northern "Baltimore" Oriole. On our previous trip Amy and I spotted a Cardinal couple, and I managed to get a picture. I think I'll go back tomorrow. |
