Passive Aggressive Poodles

I swear I'm not making this up and I'm not looking for trouble. This stuff really happened.

So I'm home all week and keeping my eye out for Orpheus Park activity... and there's plenty. Monday, I walk my son to school and encounter just the usual obstacle course of dog waste. Around 10 am, I see a maintenance crew doing the twice weekly clean up: blow the walkways, pick up dog poop and change the trash cans, and for the first time in a long time they raked the sand! That's it, they are out of there in 30 minutes flat.

I decide to sit and watch them do their work and read the paper. I want to see what they are really doing. While they are working, about 4 toddlers are in the sand playing, 3 dogs are running free (it is NOT off leash time), someone is throwing a ball to one. As two workers are raking the sand the dogs are running through the freshly raked sand. No control by the owners. To protect the children I tell one of the owners that it is not leash free time. She tells me to "get a life." That seems to be a common reply from the dog people. I took some photos of the activity, check it out.
I then started thinking to myself... This IS my life!

Later in the day, 2:15pm, My younger son and I walk down to pick my oldest boy from school. We always stop at the park for a break from walking up the hill. Usually we see the neighborhood boys hanging out with their moms. It's about 2:35pm and today we have a football and we're throwing it around. Seven boys, 4 to 9 years of age, 3 moms, myself and my wife who joined us at about 2:45pm. So the football rolls in to the freshly raked sand area. You'd think the sand would be a safe place to step into, right? NOT. The boy chasing the ball steps right into a giant steamer.

Right at 2:50 pm on the nose, we are invaded or swarmed by 6-7 leash-free dogs. Out of the corner of my eye I see a dog rummaging through my son's left over lunch... It's gone. Then I observe a GIANT Great Dane running down hill straight for my 5 year old. I yell to my wife to grab him. Needless to say Myles is scared. All of the moms and boys pack up and leave. The Great Dane won't leave us alone.


Later that evening around 5pm, I walk out my front gate to get my mail and find that I can't get out because it's blocked by a vehicle (AGAIN!) I have to climb around the car and walk through my bushes to get out only to find that my mailbox is blocked also. No mail today. The mailman told me yesterday he was unable to open the mailbox and unable to knock on my door to hand it to me. I leave a note on the window of the offending cars and ask of them to be respectful of the neighborhood and not block our access to our walkway and mailbox... The notes end up discarded in our flower bed.
What a day! Thank god it's night, and I don't have to worry about being bothered by dogs... Oh that's right, dogs can hang out at night til' 8 and they were barking continuously up until 8:15.

Waking this morning, Tuesday 2/2, we were running a little late and made it through the obsticle course in record time, dodging at least a dozen poops in our path. One of our neighbors was there with his dog picking up everyone else's leftover poop. Nice guy.

About 9:15, I see the maintenance crew there again... Two days in a row? That's unusual. Today they are mowing the dormant burmmuda grass that hasn't grown an inch since October. So, they're going through the motions, someone is raking leaves, one of them is weed-wacking and the other is on a ride mower. I'm with my youngest son on the back of my bike, and we are on our way to the preschool. We stop and watch as the weed wacker is moving along the sidewalk. I see a giant shit that I noticed earlier about 5 feet in from the sidewalk. He passes it, then here comes the ride mower right at it. The mower blades roll right over it atomizing it... It's gone, where it is know one knows. On my way home from preschool I find one of the workers blowdrying the dog urine.

Later in the day, I see a work crew right in front of the park. Three guys are holding shovels, one guy is working and another guy who was doing a lot of pointing. Must be the supervisor. They are moving the dog hour sign from its old location to front row and center for everyone to see. It's really really beautiful. Not as nice as the Orpheus Park Theme sign, but we are not talking about a nice neighborhood park here anyways. They also added an additional sign at the bottom of the hill near the school. Now that those new signs are there I'm sure people will follow the rules. How much did that cost the taxpayer? Chris Hazeltine's knee jerk management at work again. Remember in his report to the City Council expanding the hours was only going to cost $3000 to replace the signs at three parks. Now they added a new sign and relocated an existing one.
The remainder of the day was rather uneventful with just the usual dozens of off leash dogs running through the park. Remember, it's TUESDAY. There are no off leash hours on Tuesday, right? Just read the expensive new signs.

I saved the best for last: a big SHIT in my entry way this morning! I might be a little paranoid, but it looks like someone placed it there. Something definitely stinks here.

This is a day in the life of someone that lives near dog park.

Steve Mieche

[Edited for brevity]