Fast Paced Day

Today flew by. It was over before I knew it. I got to work early and was hoping to be able to get the leaf blower started. The walkway was getting embarrassingly leafy and sandy. Success! I had pulled the cord several times and was about to give up. I gave it one last pull and a little puff and sputter happened. Another pull and it started up. I let it run for a few minutes and then headed to the walkway. Sunday divers start early so I wanted to get the walkway clear first thing. I start at the bottom of the walkway where the spring dock is and blow upwards so that any garbage on the walkway doesn't end up in the spring and so that I am facing the direction that people would come from if they arrived while I was working. I can't hear anything over the leaf blower, so I have to watch for visitors. My method usually works... but not today. Today I was surprised by someone who came up behind me from the spring. I had a group of divers arrive by boat and the instructor was checking in with me. The rest of the day turned out to be just as hectic as the morning. There were always two things that I needed to do at once. We ended up with more than 30 divers before noon. I was glad that I was able to get the whole walkway and parking lot blown off before the crowds arrived.
I was also able to get some litter picked up in the parking lot. Its a great task to work on when the park is busy because I can be in the parking lot to greet people and check divers as they arrive. Its much easier to keep track of everyone if I can catch them when they arrive. I even got the grills in the picnic area cleaned out while I was watching the parking lot fill up. At one point, I was at the spring dock visiting with people and answering questions, a few turtles showed themselves. I see the larger, river turtles in the spring often. These little turtles are musk turtles. They don't get very big and they are kind of shy so we don't see them as often. Today I had the treat to see two. They are the tiny blobs between the stairway railing. It was also around that time that I saw a boy calmly walked over to his aunt to show her that his whole side was covered in blood. It looked worse than it was. He had slipped and fell on a rock. I offered a first aid kit and once he was cleaned up, it was a very large scrape but fortunately nothing serious.
Later in the day, I was on the spring dock and saw a family fishing in an area of the spring. We don't allow fishing within the spring because it is a swim area. Sharp hooks and bare swimmer feet don't get along well. I walked over to the river trail to get to where they were and fortunately they were very nice people. They understood why they couldn't fish in the spring and I recommended a better spot to them. I was glad that I went to talk to them though because they had stories to tell me about the history of the property where the park is now. They worked for the previous owner and their information helped me to piece together some fragmented information that I already had. I walked out to the river after that and saw a beautiful flock of egrets flying past. They appeared to move in slow motion and I was able to get a few photos as they went by. I really lucked out when a motor boat went by and scared them back past me again. Take two!
I was busy all day, but it was never stressful. Everyone was nice to be around and no one minded following the rules. ...and the leaf blower worked!!! It was a good day.