Sochi minus 3 ..and the rocks acomimg

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The beaches along greater Sochi …are the rocky kind …not sand ..not pebbles ..but rocks ..3 times bigger than the ballast found on the roof of a city apartment building...

Somehow the natives can tough it out …but the foreigner ..suffers …in fact you can tell who is who by what happens the second they step onto the beachhead ..

The natives ..stay focused on the chosen spot …they do not miss a step on the rounded rocks...and may even hurry a bit … you do not fear anything ..until you have something to loose ..

so now …with the prize in view …a fear arises ..because the desired 2 square meters in sight …may be the target of another bather coming from a different direction …

Where as the foreigner ..immediately takes a dive ..the shoulders pull in and the goes head down ..something like a dying bird on the wing..which I once saw …while sitting on a bench in the hills above Naples ..

It was lunch time ..and I just bit down a piece of fresh bread ..when from my peripheral vision on the right side ..came this swooping pigeon …

I pulled the bread out of my mouth …and like it was attached by string to the birds’ wings ..at the same time the birds’ wings folded in ..tight to its body ..

Where they remained even as the poor creature crashed landed and bounced on the sidewalk for a meter or so ..in front of me ..

Dead ....dead on the wing ..and as dead can be ..

The heavy set Napolitano vendor ..who just a few minutes earlier sold me the lunch bread and salami ..looked up ..first at the bird and then toward me ..I could clearly see the huge black growth hanging on his right cheek …and bouncing in rhythm with the bird ..anyway that was the reason he favored the left side ..in a sort of macabre twist to the wisdom of offering the other cheek ..

He shrugged his thick shoulders ..

I put away my bread ..and salami ..

He stayed ..

I left …

Anyway ..just as you should be looking up in wonder at the high blue sky above Sochi …where oh so many years ago Alexei Leonov…the Cosmo ought and Hero of the USSR…walked out for the first time history ..into open outer space .. ..

Instead it is all you can do to avoid falling down and going belly up on the Sochi rocks ..the unbelievable pain under foot!

....for once in your life you see yourself exactly as others’ see you ..and you imagine how ungainly you appear … all the while the children race ..yes ..race by ..screaming with delight toward the beautiful green water ..and the old women ..lining up behind you …kind of nudging you forward with ‘’certain looks of distain” …or the young woman ..the beautiful young Russian woman ..wearing less than your shredded dignity.. ..giggle at your obvious tenderness ..

Suddenly ..and forever ..you forget about any technological advantages you believed you had ..over the Russian Bear ..

You are doing all you can to hang on to ..what ever you have left …and turning toward heaven ..far above Leonovs’ playground …pleading “God ..Almighty ..where is a spot to sit!!!

And then when you finally get to your spot ..on the beach ..you don’t move …not to eat …not to swim ..not to piss ..you don’t move again until sunset ..

Oh no… you are not going through that horror again ..!!

So the next day …you become much more interested in Sochis’ gardens, wide verandas, terraces and parks …and it is a sincere and honest interest..

Even though never before in your life ..were you even capable of recognizing green palms..Cypress trees or spreading plane trees ..somehow ..joyfully..you do ..the next day ...

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