I promised I'd use both my posts tonight. First a little background. Those of you who know me or have read my resume (http://tcfreenet.org/~riese/fam/Erik.html#rs) know that I'm an avid skater. I rollerblade year-round, the lakes and trails in the summer and the Dome in the winter. Each winter I also engage in what is perhaps the finest urban outdoor winter activity ever conceived - gliding across a sheet of glimmering ice on a pair of stainless steel blades. It is a fleeting pleasure. The season is only about seven weeks long if all goes well. Each year the Minneapolis Park operations staff create sheets of ice on our lakes and in our parks. It takes a lot of work to make a nice sheet of ice. Regular sweeping, plowing, flooding to create a new layer each day all at night and in freezing temperatures. They also deal with the weather that can drop six inches of slush on your fresh ice. This year the weather has been perfect and the operations staff has done a superb job of making beautiful ice. Almost everyday I've traversed the ice at Matthews Park to find it glittering and smooth, ready for use. Almost everyday I tied on stainless blades and spent an hour or two or more spinning and cutting and dancing across the ice. Now to the crux. Despite the excellent weather and the prospect of another week or more of perfect conditions the joy of skaters in the city is about to end. No more etching figures on a perfectly groomed sheet of shiny ice on a sunny day while Downtown Minneapolis provides distant witness. The rinks will close on Monday. Skaters will find the warming houses locked, snow will no longer be cleared from the ice, new layers of ice will not be added and I won't be able to share stories with a rose gardener (The operation staffer who works at Matthews Park tends the Rose gardens in the spring, summer and fall.) The schedule says the rinks close on Monday. Even though the weather will be great for skating. Usually the schedule is right on. The weather warms, winter starts to slink away and the ice recedes until only mud paint chips from the hockey boards are left on the baseball diamond, but this year is different. If you know anyone connected with the Park Board operations staff or management - Annie I'm singling you out again - please ask them to keep the rinks open an extra week, ten days or more if the weather holds. And, if there is absolutely no way to do it, ask them to explain to us why. Lets have our city serve the people and the seasons instead of the calendar. While you're at it, get out to a skating rink if you haven't been yet this winter. At Matthews Park we have dozens of pair of skates available free for your use if you don't own a pair. Many other parks also have skates for you to use. I know Sibley has skates. Matthews Park is located at 29th Avenue South and East 24th Street two blocks south of Franklin and Riverside. Sibley Field is at East 39th Street and Longfellow Avenue South. Come on out, skate, call your Park Board contacts and ask for a few extra days. Even if we can't get a few more days you can still come out and skate this weekend! -- In cooperation, Erik Riese Decisive Moment Information, support, and facilitation for groups and individuals who need to decide. Seward 9-1 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ _______________________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - Minnesota E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
