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Monday, May 21, 2012

They never heard me coming



There I was having a nice sail on the lake, drinking a few beers, and soaking in the sun.

Looking back over the stern I saw a couple guys in a peddle boat. They landed at my beach and threw a bunch of trash in my bushes. What the heck where they thinking?

I pushed the tiller over, caught a strong tail wind and sailed back to my beach at a goodly speed. They weren’t looking my way until I was almost on top of them. For a few moments I was really tempted to run them over. By then I was standing up on my cockpit seat. It must have looked like the Vikings were landing.

At the very last minute the anchor went overboard and I stopped about 20 feet away from them. I shouted at them that they’d better pick up that litter. The guys quickly picked up the trash. They made some hasty apologies and went on their way.

Litterbugs in general tick me off. It’s such a senseless thing to do and shows a real lack of respect. When they litter on my land, my blood rises. The kids got away easy.

I’ve come across strangers landing on my beach before. That doesn’t automatically set me off. The prevailing winds blow towards my beach so boats with mechanical trouble naturally drift into it. Sometimes I’ve been able to help them. Stuff happens.

However, there’s no excuse for litterbugs.

-Sixbears

20 comments:

  1. Sixbears,

    There is no excuse!! When I go into town, I see this often with the college kids or the twenty somethings, and it just ticks me off. I truly get ticked when you come out into the country and someone decides their just going to dump their tires or an appliance in the woods. There are days, I wished I had a garbage truck to follow these people back to their homes and just dump the load at their front door (sorry I'm just venting).

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  2. Every since fast food arrived people seem to think it's okay to toss their garbage out the car window. If caught they should have to pick up trash for a mile along both sides of the highway and the median (if there is one) wearing a jump suit with the big letter L on it. Of course, then the ACLU would get involved. I hate it.

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  3. That was very rude of them, a salute of rock salt in their general direction would be warranted, but its again' the rules . . .

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    Replies
    1. So is running them down, but that almost happened.

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  4. I pick up beer and soda cans outta my yard every Monday. At least they can be thrown in my recycle bin. It's funny, I use to just throw things out the window until I bought property. Go figure. Maybe this is payback for me? You handled it better than I would've. I'm glad you caught them in the act.

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    Replies
    1. At least you learned. Hope those guys learned a lesson.

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  5. Yeah, that would piss me off. A severe tongue lashing would have been the best they could expect from me...

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    Replies
    1. Good thing they did a quick pickup of the trash. My blood was up.

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  6. littering has always been a pet peeve of mine; I especially get disgusted at the people who toss their cigarette butts out the window.

    true justice would be making litterbugs EAT what they litter with.

    I would squash them like bugs, but that would be an insult to bugs everywhere.

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    Replies
    1. Make them eat the butts . . . that they would remember.

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  7. I had a vision of a big grey bearded viking sailing up in the direction of my boat, yelling curses and looking threatening! Bet you got their attention to say the least!

    Bet they won't do that again in your neck of the shore!

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    Replies
    1. That's probably a pretty good image on how it really looked.

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  8. Wow! That doesn't happen often down there. I'm glad you caught them. Really glad they picked it up... I'd hate to have to bail you out of jail. ;)

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    1. I'm glad they picked it up too or you would have had to bail me out of jail.

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    2. When that call comes, it better be for something epic and cool. Just saying...

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  9. As the weekends come we've noticed litter on the road into our neighborhood. Pisses me off. I'm temped to put up a few signs but what little lumber we have is being used. Could paint some utility poles but that's prolly illegal. Littering is just plain senseless.

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  10. A sign probably wouldn't do any good. Too bad, but it seems to be a problem all over.

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  11. They used to have signs all over the roads in Pennsylvania about a $300 fine for littering. That was a good enough deterrent for me not to litter. (Heck, I will stop to pick up something that blows out the window.) I still see them occasionally, so my guess is that the law is still on the books, but now I see many more "Adopt-A-Highway" signs, and people with orange vests collecting bags and bags of garbage.

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