Ruining the Fun

Wednesday the weather report said it'd be sunny in the morning and then rainy starting around midday, so we were going to plan to do some inside stuff that day. But, it ended up being a really nice day. Around 10:30 or so, the boys and I decided to take the dogs for a walk to a little pond near us. As we got near the pond, Zach, who was ahead of Drew and me on his bike, said, "Mom! There's something over there!" We'd had a big storm the night before, and I'd seen small branches on the ground here and there, so I thought it might just be debris. But then it moved, and I thought, "Is that a cat creeping up on something?" We got a little closer, and I could see it was a huge turtle! I only had my phone with me, so this is the best picture I could get. I didn't want to get too close to it because I didn't want to scare it. Once we moved a little further away, we watched it walk all the way down to the water, and then we could see it floating with its head above the water. I've never seen a turtle that big anywhere around here, so it was kind of neat.

This pond/lake (it's small, so I call it a pond, but the sign by it says lake) is technically a private lake. It has town homes in a u-shape around it, but there is one whole side of the lake butts right up to a public sidewalk, a neighborhood street, and has no houses or anything along it. The boys love to throw rocks into the water, and I like to skip rocks. The rocks along the shore are actually man-made rocks- chunks of concrete that break into great skipping rocks. We go there every now and then to throw a few rocks- not once a week, but maybe every-other week or so. We don't throw tons of rocks, but we spend 5-10 minutes there. Well, we were sitting there, tossing rocks, when I heard, "Excuse me, mam?" I looked up to the street, and there was an older lady in a car stopped. I figured she was going to ask for directions or something, but she said, "Are you throwing rocks into the lake?" in a snotty, accusatory tone. I said, "Yes, we're just throwing the little ones," in a somewhat snotty, defensive tone. She said, "Well, we have to pay for new rocks here. This is a private pond." I held up a little rock and said, "We're throwing these tiny pieces!" She said, "Well, it's a private pond." Wow. I'm sure I don't have to tell you the word I was thinking of to describe her, but it rhymes with witch. I mean, seriously, lady? You're getting mad that a 5 year-old and 2 year-old are throwing tiny rocks into your private pond? Yes, we were sitting right by the "Private Lake" sign, and I know it's a private lake, but we were not by anybody's house, driveway, or anything. We were only at the part of the shore that backs up to the public sidewalk. We've done this so many times without any issues. I just couldn't believe this lady would make a stink about it. She drove off, and I said, "Let's go, boys. We can't throw rocks here anymore." That lady definitely brought the term "persnickety old woman" to mind. I was totally annoyed, and I vowed to be nice to little kids and their moms who are causing no harm when I'm an old lady.