:: :: ill advised :: ::

things i probably should have considered before i took evan to play outside at the playground on thursday:

(1) the parking lots of all the local parks are closed (this is their way of saying "hey, we wanted to close entirely but we can't really keep you from walking into the park so we're just not going to make it easy" and also "there's no way in hell we're going to plow all winter") so we would have to walk a significant distance to the playground and then back to the car (cutting down on our play time because omg it was cold out on thursday)

(2) the park near our house is on a big hill...

(3) ...that is exposed to the nastiest of chilling cold winter winds (scolding winds... winds that kept whipping across my face with all the "this was a bad idea" they had)

(4) despite there being no real snow on the ground, the slides are covered in a thin layer of ice, beneath which lies an icy, icy layer of water that, my not having thought to bring a towel, i must wipe off the slide with my mittens

(5) telling evan that we can only play for a few minutes on a playground is like someone telling me that i can only have one tiny bite of the warmest, gooey-est, most barely cooked chocolate chip cookie in the world -- it's one of those things you'd probably consent to but you almost want to say "why bother?"

(6) and it makes you cry

lucky (or perhaps not so lucky) for evan, i did not think of any of these things when we went to the playground on our way home on thursday morning. this week had just gotten so very, very long and we were both getting bored and i just wanted to spend some time out in the crisp air and make evan happy.

i'd probably skip it next time, though. or else i'd be more prepared.