Black Rhombus

Woke up to a gray, cloudy Sunday morning, & feared the worst. Ask Rebecca: before I left, I really, really didn’t want to go. I don’t like playing ultimate in the rain, & I thought for sure we were in for some. I sucked it up, though, & headed to the lab for my pre-game run.

Man, the island is always interesting the morning after Tiki Bar opening. Lots of trash, the odd article of clothing, cars strewn about in random places, red stains on the road (heh… yeah). It’s like some weird post-apocalyptic ghost town. At least the lab seemed to have faired better this year than last year; no kegs through windows is always a good thing. The CBL crowd even did a decent job cleaning up… amazing.

Anyhow, got my run in, & headed for campus. Got there a bit after noon, but, in true SMC style, they’d yet to even setup the field Ahh predictability. Good to see the old heads again. Tim was there, along w/his horse dog, Rocky. Dean, Derrick, Pembleton, Shannon, & even Brian Sullivan were there. I had feared that I’d be the sole 98-99 rep, but I was happy to see Marc, Heisler, & Craig had come out. A bit later, Grim & ‘Fiq even showed up. Good stuff.

Did it rain? Not really. It sprinkled for ~10mins, & then it was a picture-perfect day. We ended up losing the game 16-14, but managed to get a game of beer-in-hand in before everyone lost their motivation. I brought the Easter Boh’s leftover from Drew’s party, & they were sucked up pretty quickly after I started pushing ‘em on people After the games, I gave Hope a ride to St. James, got some sammiches, & then just chilled out on the townhouse greens to eat. Can’t remember the last time I did that…

Stopped at the Door on my way home. Viet was there. I’d apparently just missed Tim. An awesome day. Had a great time. Hopefully we’ll get even more old heads out next year…

I’ve started a photo blog here that I’ll be posting to for the rest of this week. This gallery will chronicle everything that not only the Tiki Bar, but the rest of the town of Solomons does to get ready for Tiki bar opening. So many people simply show up for the opening, & don’t really know what goes on in the preparation stages.

Although I’ve seen these stages for the last seven years, this year will be a bit different because of all the new construction going on. The Tiki Bar as we know it has certainly been transformed into a completely different animal.

This morning on my trip down the island, everything was as usual until I got around the corner & up the hill in front of the b&b. In the road, in front of the house across the street from Mansueti, lay a duck that’d been killed by a car. No matter how many times I’ve seen this happen, it makes my stomach drop out, & an anger well up within me.

Has this happened before? Yes, unfortunately. I’ve seen probably ten ducks killed on that one stretch of road over the last year alone. I just don’t get it. There’s a small pool with fake geese in front of that house. The people who live there “decorate” the geese according to the seasons (rain coats, santa’s outfits). During spring, there’s almost always a pair of mating ducks who hang around that area. In fact, this pair is probably the one I’ve seen around campus lately. People know that ducks are in the area. There may even be a duck crossing sign in the damn street; but don’t quote me on that.

Ducks on the ground are slow. They waddle. They’re not zipping across the road like the idiot squirrels I have to run the gauntlet through down Sollers Wharf every morning. If you hit a duck in the road, you’re either out to do it intentionally, or you’re such an f’ing idiot that you shouldn’t be allowed to drive anyway. I don’t know which circumstance would make you the bigger asshole.

It’s spring. The duck that was killed was one of a mating pair. That female now has to deal with either finding another mate, or attempt the rest of the season on her own (if they’d already mated). Think about that the next time you round that corner, you idiots.

———————————————–

On a completely un-related note, happy 4/20 everyone.