“Dad”, my daughter said to me, “your blog today was pretty good. You’ve mostly just been saying the same thing recently, that Forest Park is America’s best park and you saw an animal.”

“Of course it’s America’s best urban park and I do see lots of animals!” I thought to myself, but what I did out loud was laugh.

“That’s crazy!” I told her, “I’ll ask the others.”

My son and wife were in the kitchen, so I dragged the phone in there and told them what Lizzy had said.

“Well,” began my wife,“ you do say a lot how great Forest Park is.”

“That’s because it’s true!”, I protested.

“And you do talk a lot about animals.” my son observed.

“They agree with you.” I reported to my daughter, perhaps a bit disappointed. Criticism is sometimes hard to take.

“I really like it when you talk about interesting things, like the people you meet.” Lizzy explained.

“Sometimes I don’t meet people who want to talk to me.” I grumbled. Even when I’m in charming and urbane mode!

So today I took my number one son and his wife with me to the park. I thought about how great Forest Park is (why, I bet it’s America’s best urban park) and I saw some pelicans. Which made me think of a limerick I once heard.

I also took a few photos, even though the light was poor.