Shall We Play Bridge?

When I was a boy my parents used to go out to 'play bridge' occasionally. I think that may have been a code word for 'drink and eat appetizers with the neighbours', or maybe it just meant 'get away from the kids'. Mostly get away from Doug and Alex, I suppose, because I was an angel back then. Not surprisingly, I still am.

I can't actually remember my parents playing bridge at our house, though I do have some vague memories of appetizers and weird people in the living room. (Oh, wait, that was one of Alex's parties.) Yet, I never saw a deck of cards. The bottom line is that playing bridge seemed mysterious. I never witnessed my parents practicing bridge either. They just went out and did it. I think the Daily Gleaner was in cahoots with them because they published some bridge information that was coded.I never did break the code, nor did my grubby -faced, sandbox amigos.

Currently I have another bridge mystery on my hands. Two weeks ago a road crew came and inspected the Cambridge-Narrows bridge. They lowered some mucky-mucks with hard hats over the side of the bridge for an inspection. The next day they blocked off one lane of the bridge. I expected that they'd start work immediately. So far nothing has happened.

It quickly became the talk of the Village. What are they doing? After two weeks....nothing. We have to wait at either end of the bridge for the light to turn green so we can proceed across the bridge. Why? We do not know. No one knows, not even the Mayor (and he knows everything about the Gubbamen).

I was at a birthday party last evening for a local 49 year old  (J-Y.P.)Talk of the bridge came up during the conversation. According to one knowledgeable person (S.C.) at the party, the inspection of the bridge turned up a large hole in one of the main carrying beams. The hole looked to be the size of a basketball hoop, or bigger, based on my interpretation of the hand gesture that accompanied the spoken description. Apparently the inspector debated whether or not to close the entire bridge. Thankfully just one lane was closed, but for how long?

The pictures you see on today's blog were taken on the bridge last evening before I drove to the birthday party. The sky was beautifully intoxicating, but would I have given myself the green light to walk on the dangerous side of the bridge and take those pictures had I known about the condition of the bridge? The party was on the other side of the bridge and I did drive across the bridge to get home afterwards, so I'm not overly concerned for my safety, I guess. Also, I have jumped off it successfully once before so I could do it again....if I had to. Also again, if I'm going through the bridge it'll likely be in my Focus wagon with a half ton of rocks in back!

Splish-splash, I'm a takin' a bath.

 I'll be curious to see when our bridge is fixed. The old Jemseg bridge has been down to one lane for over a year with no apparent work being done. Let's hope we fare better in Cambridge-Narrows. On the upside I'm thinking of selling muffins and Telegraph Journals to the motorists waiting in line to get across the bridge. They're queued up right at the end of my driveway. This is the business opportunity for which I've been waiting 22 years. God has finally thrown me a bone.