I took the girls ice skating today!  Last summer I got a pair of skates that actually fit me, and I’ve been eager to use them.  Cabot Rec Dept made an ice rink on the green earlier this year by building a wooden wall about 6 inches high and filling it with water.  They have a huge bin of skates there for people to wear.

Well by now the ice was in pretty bad shape, with all the snow and melt we’ve had the surface was pretty rough.  I got on there and it was difficult to move in some places with the blades sinking in a half an inch.

We had brought Errol along, but he was not interested in skating.  He saw a playground in someone’s yard and headed right for that.  Audrey retrieved him, but then he wanted to go to the store and get Goldfish crackers.  I even found a small set of skates, but he was not interested in that at all.  I got the skates on him and took him onto the ice, but he wouldn’t even put his feet down.  He was screaming the whole time.  So I took him home and went back to skate with the girls.

First I skated with Olivia, holding her hand, and then later all three of us skated holding hands together, me with a girl on each side.  The girls fell down often, but I never did, because of all my years of rollerblading the streets of New York.  Only once did I come close, when I was moving a good clip and my skate dug into a soft spot.  Audrey laughed but was also impressed that I stayed on my feet.

It’s been a while since I skated, and I have gotten more and more out of shape, so I would skate for two minutes and sit down for one.

When we were done we used the show shovels provided and cleared all the loose ice we dug up off the snow.  It was great.