Jumpin’ off the old hamburgler stand deck
The cabin at Fin Family Moominbeach is closed for the long hardland of the Great Lake State Yooper winter. If it were up to me, I’d’ve prob’ly waited a few weeks more but it is not to be, at least not this year with the Cali trip in the mix, etc. I am not sure if The Commander intended for this particular container of flowers to be stashed under the back end of the deck but there it is. Maybe it’ll provide some food for some creature or other. And it’s just a plastic container so, if something happens to it, we’ll just buy a new one in the spring. Ho-hum. Er, not that we are trying to be wasteful or anything. Just saying.
Anyway, that railing that goes down the steps is new within the last five years or so. I can’t remember *exactly* when the GG built it but it is there so that octo-folk can get up and down the steps without losing their balance and falling. There is a railing on the front steps too (not shown) and you might be able to see the pee-rail back behind the step-railing. I’m not gonna say what that was for, you can use your imagination. Although it *is* stable enough to put drinks on while barbecuing.
When I was a kid and the deck was first built, there weren’t any railings anywhere. Us kids didn’t need no stinkin’ railing! In fact, most of the time, I was in such a hurry to get somewhere that I didn’t even bother with the STEPS! I would go out the door running and launch myself off the deck totally over the stairs onto the pine-needle-covered sand, jump over the baby pine tree that finally got so big that the octos cut it down (it was in the way of their parking spot) and then over to the Old Cabin or on down the old road or path to the old Mc Cabin or the Read cabin or THE POND (!!!) or wherever.
Some folks now need the railings. I don’t need them yet. I don’t (usually) launch myself off the deck over the steps anymore. I am actually still able to walk up to the back deck on the path from the Don/Katie/Betty direction and climb up onto the DECK, without using those steps, by reaching one foot a couple of feet up onto the deck and heaving the rest of myself up there. I wonder how long I will be able to do that. And what will make me decide I can’t do it any more.