Thursday, April 8, 2010

mixed messages


Big news (kidding): I took another bike ride. It's been hard not to take bike rides during this long all-too-welcome string of perfectly-glorious days. I went in the other direction this time, i.e., around Ocean Drive, where I saw something I hadn't noticed before ... nothing big, but it made me think. Hmmm. Isn't there a mixed message here??

Yes, that's a ladder beside the sign.
Worse, the ladder is in rough shape.

Isn't that rather like leaving a full (open) bottle of vodka on the counter, then leaving to go out for the evening, all the while leaving three or four teenagers at home alone?? Or maybe it's like Brer Rabbit begging Brer Fox to please, please, please not throw him into the Briar Patch. I was always partial to Brer Rabbit stories (and that Zippity Doo Dah song), although they never became favorites of my kids, no matter how many times I suggested them or read them aloud. Perhaps it's a generational thing. Certain aspects are definitely outmoded and/or in poor taste ...

In any case, of course I checked out that ladder. Just as the teenager who was climbing up it when I got there had checked it out. I did not climb down, however, no matter how much I wanted to climb on the rocks. We do gain some wisdom with age. Instead, I went a little farther on my bike and pulled off into the dirt road at the King's Beach Fishing Area, an easier-access spot for rock-climbing. And decent fishing, so I assume. And decent diving, so I'm told. The boat ramp — or it looks like a boat ramp — is in rough shape, but we like our stuff old (historic?) in Newport ...