Something I did yesterday
25-Mar-02
Well, a couple of somethings. John and I went to the Cement Ship, down in Aptos, had mochas while we walked out to the ship, talked, and generally had a nice time together. While we were there, we took some pictures of various stuff, including each other (how sweet), birds, the ocean, etc.
We then went to Cole’s Barbecue, which is a really great BBQ place in Aptos and in Santa Cruz. John was drooling the minute I mentioned Cole’s until we got there!
A funny thing happened while we were there, though. We were sitting at a table by the window, and I could see this woman digging up some plants next to the railroad. It was hard to tell what she was doing, but it was pretty clear to me that she was transplanting from public property. I’m not sure, but I think that’s illegal in these parts. I took some video of it on my little digital camera, but it was very blurry and hard to make out, so I deleted it.
Still, it got me thinking about it. Is that illegal? Is it a harmless crime? I mean, these were just plants from the side of the railroad. But they were plants that may have been deliberately placed there by the city. Are they stealing from the taxpayers by taking them, or doing a public service by removing the outgrowths? Personally, I think that if someone is transplanting from what is obviously not her property, that she’s stealing, and probably should be caught.
My friend Jeanette had some neighborhood kids who were stealing her flowers. Not only were these flowers that she had bought and planted herself, they were plants that she was painstakingly taking care of, protecting them from the condo’s landscape gardeners and everything. To have someone come along and uproot them was both frustrating and hurtful. I don’t imagine that the city workers who planted the original plants feel the same way, but I do suspect that they were planning on those outgrowths to take root and propagate and make more plants. Once or twice I’ve gone out to the yard to find little holes dug in the earth, and some of the plants just don’t seem to “take.” I usually attribute it to my bad gardening skills, the dog, the neighbor’s cat, or some other little gremlin. But what if it’s not? What if it’s a crime being perpetrated on my home?
John did take a little quicktime movie of me having my beer (1.6 MB). Here’s a picture from that moment, too:
After lunch, we went home and worked on the computers (see yesterday’s entry about Linux), I finished reading “The Turn of the Screw” and read The Caretaker (Harold Pinter play) as well. Man, that one was tough– I didn’t know what to say about its theme! I also scanned through some poems I had already read, to make my notecards on them for studying later. Just looking at my notecards tells me I don’t have enough modern poetry or prose, and I know I don’t have enough cards on American writers (though I have read enough). Most of my cards say “British” on them.