Bikes, Birds, and Gangs

Long Island Sound, with downtown New Haven in the Distance

Today was a great day. The mercury hit right about 60 degrees and the sun was mostly shiney. Trying to ditch the Boyz (W2 & EZ) I hops'd in my ride and took my bike out to the Farmington Canal Trail, having enjoyed my first trip on it in the fall. As far as bike rides go, it was a pretty sweet one. All in all, it was a successful day in the out-of-doors. Much better than yesterdays endeavors. . .

Living up on the hill I often forget that I'm in an Ocean Town . . . home of the largest deepwater port in all of New England. True Story. Yesterday I decided to venture down to the shore to embrace the ocean and all of its soul-stirring majesty. Instead of a well-stirred soul, I wound up with a massive case of the creeps.

I'm a realist. I knew I was heading down to the less than pristine Long Island Sound on a mid-March day. There were no delusions of finding a beautiful sandy beach or lots of fascinating sealife. Really, I didn't expect much more than water gently lapping the smooth stones of the shoreline. What I found blew my mind. . .

Dirty Bird

Sure, there were some stones there . . . but they were buried underneath a Flock of Seagulls (the non-musical variety). Birds creep me out in general. I think it is because they have scaley legs. Flocks of birds creep me out even more so. I was tempted to keep on driving when I saw all the birds staring at me from the beach, but I decided to tough it out and face one of my irrational fears. Walking out to the pier to take a good long look at the sound I saw a couple gulls on the railings and thought "Quintessential New England Seascape" and busted out my Canon A520.

I busied myself finding the perfect bird, perfect angle, and perfect composition. As I was clicking the shutter button I noticed something odd through the viewfinder. The bird was staring me down. Then, when he knew that I knew that he was staring me down he proceeded to hork-up something utterly nasty on the rail (see the slimy thing in the picture? thats what I saw the gull heave forth). Just then, there was a large amount of flapping and several of his buddies landed on the railing just behind me. Scenes from Hitchcock's The Birds ran through my mind and I got the heck outta dodge.

Dirty (?) Birdz

On my way back to the car I noticed something even creepier than the thing from the bird. All the cars lining the sound were occupied. Not with people smokin' stuff. Nor with couples schmekin' around. But with lots of old men . . . just sitting . . . silently. One or two serene sea watchers I'd be cool with, but a whole convention of them? I'm sure it was just a bunch of nice, kind, grandfatherly Old Men getting their Hemingway on with the Sea. Still, questions plagued me . . . Was this some sort of old man gang I'd accidentally crossed? Was I on their turf? A car door opened. Scenes of the Creepy Old Dude from the Family Guy ran through my mind and I, again, got the heck outta dodge.

Based on todays events I've come to realize that a) The Sea and I Don't Mix and b) I've got a lot of pop-culture inspired fears.

C'est la vie.