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A Venice kind of moment
Oct. 20th, 2005 10:34 amIrony of the day: I was blocked from getting out of my garage this morning because a Parking Enforcement guy had parked across the driveway so he could jaywalk across the street and give a ticket to a car parked on street cleaning day.
Interesting sight of the day: Last night a brown mama duck and her little bitties decided to cross the intersection of Venice Blvd. and Ocean Avenue during rush hour, from the Venice Library lawn to the parking strip across the way. No doubt they were on their way back to roost for the night on the Venice canals which are only about a block from there. People in Venice are very protective of their ducks—one girl leaped from her SUV and left it blocking the lane so they could get across, then inserted herself bodily in the opposite lane to block traffic coming in that direction. That is not at all uncommon around those parts. And no one who saw the reason for her blocking traffic even honked their horns. It was only as traffic piled up and the people behind could no longer see the ducks that the honking started. They waddled across in a relatively quick manner, but it took the little bitties awhile to hoist themselves up on the high curb there. Only then did the girl get back in the car and drive away. We missed a couple of lights—but like I said, no one who saw what was going on seemed to mind.
Mama was accompanied by her handsome husband, a fine green-breasted, black-headed fellow. I've seen this mated pair and their brood several times in the last couple of weeks.
One day last week, one of the sprinklers on the fine, broad line of the new Venice Library broke and flooded the grass. There must have been twenty or thirty ducks on that lawn chowing down on the bugs that were coming to the top of the grass to escape the flood—a fine smorgasbord. Mama, papa, and their brood were there, as well as other mamas, papas, and ducklings. The ducklings alternated between feeding and playing splashy swimmy games in the water.
Interesting sight of the day: Last night a brown mama duck and her little bitties decided to cross the intersection of Venice Blvd. and Ocean Avenue during rush hour, from the Venice Library lawn to the parking strip across the way. No doubt they were on their way back to roost for the night on the Venice canals which are only about a block from there. People in Venice are very protective of their ducks—one girl leaped from her SUV and left it blocking the lane so they could get across, then inserted herself bodily in the opposite lane to block traffic coming in that direction. That is not at all uncommon around those parts. And no one who saw the reason for her blocking traffic even honked their horns. It was only as traffic piled up and the people behind could no longer see the ducks that the honking started. They waddled across in a relatively quick manner, but it took the little bitties awhile to hoist themselves up on the high curb there. Only then did the girl get back in the car and drive away. We missed a couple of lights—but like I said, no one who saw what was going on seemed to mind.
Mama was accompanied by her handsome husband, a fine green-breasted, black-headed fellow. I've seen this mated pair and their brood several times in the last couple of weeks.
One day last week, one of the sprinklers on the fine, broad line of the new Venice Library broke and flooded the grass. There must have been twenty or thirty ducks on that lawn chowing down on the bugs that were coming to the top of the grass to escape the flood—a fine smorgasbord. Mama, papa, and their brood were there, as well as other mamas, papas, and ducklings. The ducklings alternated between feeding and playing splashy swimmy games in the water.