Little Red Photobomber

I wanted to do a book blahg today but it turns out I don’t really have the “chops” for that this evening. At least not for the book I want to blahg about, which is Arcadia by Lauren Groff. I loved the book enough that it deserves more than a cursory “5 stars and let’s move on”. Instead I will talk about little red photobombers.

Some of you are probably saying, “That’s a horrible photo!” And you are right. It’s kind of fuzzy and the lighting sucks, and there is a total lack of composition. But, y’know, in a way, this was point-and-shoot iPhoneography at its best! I mean, I wasn’t even sure I had actually *taken* a photo of the Three Segway Musketeers until I looked at what I had in my phone photos. I would probably have thrown the pic out if it hadn’t been for the Little Red Photobomber in the foreground. When I saw that, I cracked up, knowing I had a keeper.

So, we were driving into Downtown Deeeeetroit with Lizard Breath at the wheel of my cute li’l Ninja and we were approaching Campus Martius (I think that’s where we were) and she wanted to turn right at the next street but… We couldn’t turn right. There was some kind of construction or utility work or whatever going on and there was absolutely NO WARNING that the street was closed until you got RIGHT THERE and couldn’t make your turn. So we were kind of in limbo for a few minutes but, after some stressful backing up and other awkward maneuvering, she got us re-routed and I looked out my window and there were these Segway Musketeers and I fumbled with my phone a bit and we couldn’t *stop*, so even though I pushed the button on my iPhone cam, I could just as well have ended up with a pic of my arm or the inside of the Ninja.

The Little Red Photobomber brought back memories of Radical Betty’s sojourn at the Freighter View assisted living facility. She would tell various people about the little man outside her window (or somewhere around the building, I think, I can’t exactly remember), which turned out to be a fire hydrant, and some of those people were Concerned! and would tell us they thought she was experiencing dementia. I never thought of Radical Betty (or The Commander) as having dementia exactly but I have seen that there are many forms and manifestations of confusion that happen when people are nearing the end of their lives and dementia-like behavior can come and go. I don’t really know, but I’d like to think that Radical Betty knew darn well that the little red man was actually a fire hydrant and was just stringing some of those Concerned! people along.

2 Responses to “Little Red Photobomber”

  1. Margaret Says:

    I think that sometimes the verbal gets mixed up when people get older, and that can contribute to others judging that it’s dementia. I know that my mom has said some odd stuff, and she is as sharp as can be. It’s just that her mouth processes faster than her brain sometimes!

  2. Pooh Says:

    My mouth gets ahead of my brain too often, especially with students’ names!