Plus or Minus

The big trucks were back on South Beach yesterday as they got ready to continue work on the shoulder walking path on South Beach.  Ed went out to take photos of the trucks because he likes to take photos of out of the usual objects.  It was around lunchtime when he started taking pictures and none of the workers was around.

Then a border patrol car arrived and parked.  And then a Public Works employee came up to him and engaged in a little small talk.  It felt a bit as if they felt he needed to be investigated for taking pictures of the public works truck.  And it reminded me of the time that the local Deputy Sheriff responded to a local resident's call about "a man walking fast with a suitcase," and conducted a little conversation with Ed about where he was going.  (This was pre 9/11 even!) (He was walking to the border to catch a bus to the airport.)

So, I don't know whether it's a good thing that people are suspicious or not such a good thing.  No harm, no foul, I guess.

But it also reminds me that if you spend much time on South Beach near Benson, you will get to see one of the current Deputy Sheriffs sitting in his residential driveway, just barely outside the fence, where he can ticket any driver driving too fast on Benson.  Just enforcing the law, I know.  But I wish he had something a little more useful to engage his skills than running a speed trap from his driveway, especially at this time of year when the traffic is negligible and the probability of people driving over the speed limit is perhaps higher just because of that.

A plus? A minus?  Life in Point Roberts.