The Sign Jumping Contest
I drove up on the mountain and when I arrived, I found that the sign I had carefully placed had jumped out of the ground and was lying on its side. It had jumped out of the ground the day before that and I had received a call the night before letting me know it was down. Once again the same lady called to let me know it was down again, it only made it about three hours.
When I arrived back the day before from putting it up, there were three others along my route which had also jumped up out of the ground and laid down on the ground.
Well, one of my cousins once wrote a short story about “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
His story was amazingly entertaining, I am afraid this one will not be.
I am not quite sure yet whether the worms in our neck of the woods are rebelling against us, frustrated by the addition of so many metal sign posts being pushed down into the ground.
Of course, it might be a joint effort of the gophers, chipmunks and the ground hogs. They could have formed an army and are slowly and strategically digging beneath the ground finding each and everyone and pushing them up until they jump out of the ground and land a few feet away.
There might have been a geological shift in the hydrology of our community and water could be forcing them up. Although no new springs are found.
Maybe Mark’s jumping frogs from Calaveras have moved to my county and are hiring out to push the signs up out of the ground.
God has blessed me with knowing many great people in my life, some were friends, some were relatives, some were encouragers, some were up lifters, some were acquaintances, and some were just folks I have met.
While I know there are bad people in the world with ill intentions and a desire to hurt others, I have only had limited encounters with their type. When I started in reporting on politics, and eventually running in local elections that continued to be true until just a few years ago. Then a new breed of folks began entering the fray and with them they brought along the school yard approach to attacking their opponents.
This year as I am running in my local election cycle, they are having a ball encouraging the signs from jumping out of the ground. Of course, I am only seeing this primarily with mine and others are left standing within sight of them.
Perhaps I need to check in with my sign company, perhaps it is the metal sign stakes, maybe it’s something in the metal. I want the think the best of everyone, but the evidence seems to continue to pile up against my keeping a positive opinion on some.
