July 5 clean up

On my morning walk today--about 6 a.m.--the sun was barely visible. A thick haze. I saw about 20 Canada geese newly arrived and honking. And although the lakefront didn't look like the Washington Mall after the Obama inauguration, it was pretty sad. I don't think most Lakesiders litter like this, but there were hundreds of guests and many, many children spreading blankets, setting up chairs, and bringing along food and drink for the long, long wait of an hour or so. [sarcasm]

I know the groundskeepers will be out to do the clean up soon, but I picked up things as I went along: plastic cups with lids, spoons, forks; plastic water bottles--some never opened; empty boxes of sparklers and exploding rocks; soft drink cans; napkins and tissues; paper coffee cups; blankets, towels, folding camp chairs; dog leash; broken fixture for in-ground watering system; battery operated something with a strap; pair of white socks. But I didn't disturb the biker in a sleeping bad at the east end or the plastic bag of dog poop at the west end.

What may be the most time consuming for the grounds staff and which is the fault of Lakesiders are the hundreds of softball size+ rocks that people bring from the lakefront to anchor their blankets in case it gets windy. Each one of these will have to be picked up by hand and thrown back into the rip-rap in order not to damage the mowing equipment. Bad, bad on the people who don't pick up and remove their rocks when they take their blankets back to the cottage.

Lakeside provides at least 4 styles of trash cans, which may be part of the problem. Some people don't know whether the container is for certain plastics, or just cans, or for paper trash, so they just leave the mess on the park benches.

The above photo is actually from July 2008--haze is haze on any days.