Peace and Spedders

Day 17 (7/3/10)

I think it only appropriate that on the weekend of the 4th of July (a holiday built around the sounds of war) that I set out this morning to rebuild” Peace Memorial”. Peace Memorial had been one of my earliest builds on the south trail back in 2008. At first it lasted a long time and even got embellished by passersby. I still remember how excited I had been when I got there one day and somebody had decorated it with flowers, feathers and various other doodads. But eventually it became a target. Every time I would set it up somebody would come along and destroy it. Eventually somebody scattered the stones and I decided it was a losing battle and, like is so often the case, Peace fell by the wayside. After leaving it dormant all last summer I thought I would give it another try. The first thing I noticed when I started down the trail was that Saturday Morning must be when all the Eddie Spedders come out to dance. If you have not read my blog before you may not be aware of the taxonomy of a Spedder. You can identify the Spedder by their audaciously colored thorax, sleek abdomen, large bug eyes, and hardened skull caps. Like most of their species, they like to speed up when encountering other traffic and buzz by in the most obnoxious way, usually uttering some call that sounds remotely like ooonnn yyoouurr lleeffftt. This usually leaves me startled and results in a quick jerk to the left. Oh well, like cockroaches perhaps they will survive the destruction of the planet that humans seem so resolute in doing. In spite of the Spedders I did find a window in which to build a couple of cairns including “Peace Memorial”. I almost though I wasn’t going to get that chance. When I got to the building sight there was a Biking couple who had just sat down on the bench for a break. I rode past down the trail until I got to a sight where they had poured concrete along the edge of the trail to keep it from eroding. I found it interesting that it had preserved the tracks or a deer that must have happened along. After stopping to photograph it I headed back. The couple was still there so I decided to call it a day. Shortly after passing I looked back to see them leaving so I went back and once again, there might not be peace in the world but there is peace in that little corner of the world.