Thursday, January 15, 2009

DANGER: FALLING ROCKS

I never know what the appropriate response is to those road signs. I always wonder whether I'm supposed to say 'Oh, OK, I'll just turn round and go home again.' Of course, on the kinds of roads that have signs like that, turning round is a proposition more hypothetical than realistic.

This, reader, is a metaphor for Life, which too often holds up signs saying 'Wrong Way, Go Back!' even though the ageing process does not have a reverse gear. And so when I see economists sagely saying 'The next few years are going to be tricky' and sounding like they think they deserve a special cookie for knowing that, I reflect that I've been telling myself that the next few years are going to be tricky since about August 1969. And I have never yet been wrong.

8 comments:

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

I prefer the signs that say "This door is alarmed". And "Wet floor" (I would, but not when there's a perfectly good toilet at the other end of the shopping centre).

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Exactement. Also 'Koalas Cross Here'.

At this point I am reminded of my dear friend D, who once on a long holiday road trip to Port Lincoln (which was not on fire that day; I'm beginning to appreciate how rare that actually was) looked out of the car window at one of those road signs with a camera icon on them denoting a scenic spot suitable for photo-taking, and said 'Ooh look -- wild cameras!'

Anonymous said...

"“Economists are pessimists. They've predicted 8 of the last 3 depressions” Barry Asmus.

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

Ha! Double ha!

Elsewhere007 said...

It's worse on a bike, believe me.

Anonymous said...

I think it's at least 15 years I've been delighted as I pass Hoppers Crossing to observe that I never see a Hopper crossing - ever.

Adult kids, on the rare occassion they travel with me, now beat me to it.
And to think they used to groan.

Dad's Jokes Rool - OK?

Anonymous said...

Or, in Ballarat, the one that says "Students Cross"

Well, they would be. I know I am.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Elsewhere, at least on a bike you have a better chance of turning round, if also a much better chance of being brained by falling debris.

Anon -- yes, the studes, the koalas -- everyone's cross. It's the weather.

Hmm ... *looks at comment, thinks about it* ... MT, is that you, perchance?