So rarely are we in the right place at the right time, and in the right mood to notice a thing like that.
Since I retired, I have been doing some rose smelling. I've been trying to see how much wonder there still might be left in me after all these years. Like I said, hopping around in a pool is pretty boring stuff so I amuse myself this way and that.
One way is to rescue bugs from the pool. I've rescued bunches of lady bugs. Even a bee and a cicada. I'm sure the lifeguards think I'm nuts. One of the lady bugs was right beneath the lifeguard stand so I figured I should explain to the staring lifeguard what I was doing. I told her how the dumb lady bugs always walked back toward the water and along the lip of the pool where they often fell back in. She didn't say a word. Just stared at me. All of the lifeguards seem to be just horrified by the cicadas that fall into the pool, of which there are many. They act like they had just found a dead rat and are afraid to touch it even with a tool, like a frisbee. And I'm talking about the guys. They act like a bunch of eight year old girls. "Eeewwww!"
I had not mentioned the squirrel to any of the lifeguards. I was concerned that they might bother it. But, when I saw the squirrel run up the ladder, I asked the lifeguard if she could see from her high perch where on the platform the nest was. Well, she freaked out. She thought the squirrel was going to run up the ladder of the stand she was on and attack her. She immediately set to work considering defensive actions and decided that she would just jump from her perch into the pool. Then she settled down a bit. She had absolutely no interest in or curiosity about the squirrel. When she saw it with a baby in its mouth, she shrieked that it was eating another squirrel. I was unable to persuade her that squirrels eat nuts, not other squirrels. I thought I might have to give her CPR rather than the other way around.
Anyway, I was struck by the disconnect. Which is saying something given that I spend so much time on
Disconnects R Us, aka Beanies. |
