Went for strike training in the park with a friend last night. The skeeters were out but more tame than last week. The “annoying kids” factor was also quite low.
The park I’ve been training in was built on top of a water treatment plant. That might sound unappealing, but it’s actually quite nice. A full-size turf football field, soccer fields, rows of basketball and tennis courts, jungle gyms, ice hockey rink and indoor/outdoor pools. I’m lucky it’s just a couple blocks away.
In addition to being quite nice, it is unequivocally weird.
The entire complex is on top of the Hudson River. You have to take one of two bridges to get there and if you look over the sides you’ll see water. Occasionally it smells like sewage, corresponding to when they release treated water from the holding tanks back into the river. In a couple different places within the complex you can see giant smoke stacks reaching out from what appears to be grassy ground, but is in reality the grassy roof of a giant machine.
There are community gardens there, which look extremely nice, right next to rows of basketball courts where large men sweat on each other and curse, and both seem out of place completely, nicely. You see odd things in there. You see kids making out on astroturf… next to old men sitting with their canes on benches, watching nothing. You see aggressive young men always on the brink of a fight, and groups of young women always on the brink of doing step dance, next to old hispanics picnicking on the concrete. The skeeters are big and sneaky. And you almost always see unexpected things:
Walking past the soccer fields on the way out last night, I noticed there was a baby stroller with a bunny in it. No big whoop. It’s just The Isle of Weird.
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It’s going to be a great weekend. Tonight some promised catching up with coworkers at a favorite punk rock bar, and that won’t go too late so I can get home and do something that I don’t know yet. Tomorrow I’ll work on Project 2.3 and play Civilization V for a couple hours. Early Sunday morning a German friend who lives in Rio is arriving and will stay for 10 days. I took Monday off which will allow me to be a proper guide for two full days to start and I can’t wait.
Starting Monday, my training begins again and the late night drinking stops for a while and I’m psyched to bite down and go 100%. I’ve never been stronger and fiercer or hornier or faster or angrier.
Solus. Furious & Curious.
