Our intern once described what we do as: “Dancing a jig alone, at the end of a giant razor blade, with everyone standing around hoping you’ll slip.”
Pretty much. And it can be pretty dang hairy out there all alone, thousands of eyes on you, not all of them friendly, and everyone ready to throw shade your way ’cause, let’s face it, our profession is not beloved and because a certain Orange-Faced Baboon made it okay for the similarly inclined to bray “Fake News!” at every opportunity.
We’re used to catcalling and threats and stone-headed denial and we’re pretty much committed to soldiering past the “how come I’m not seeing this anywhere else?” and the “show me the video” or the “why aren’t the police reporting this?” in the interest of giving people critical information at critical moments.
But sometimes, when our sobriety and professionalism is questioned by the very people we’re trying to serve, we’ll confess to a Colonel Jessup Moment because: “Son, we live in a world that has news, and that news is delivered by people with pens…” And you can come up with the rest.
As fire burns through much of the Napa and Sonoma valleys and our communications lines sing with new and often important information we post what we think will be – at least – of interest and, in the best of all worlds, critical information we think will save you time and sometimes way more.
We did one of those posts early this morning, trail closures for some popular local walking trails, and were met by derision from locals who challenged our sobriety and memory.
It was a simple post. Not much to it. And when we talked to the Park District guys about it and the level of doubt people expressed about the information related we were struck by the simplicity of their response: “Well,” the Parks Guys said, “They’ll believe you when they run into those ‘Trail Closed’ signs.”
And we guess that’s the way it will have to be for some. We could have saved you some time and trouble, but some of you will just have to learn for yourselves.
For those who managed to get through this courtroom outburst and gotten to this point, here’s a link to the info we were trying to give you.
Hey! Baboons are getting a bad rap here. Besides we have never seen the Orange Man’s cheeks. It may not be an apt comparison at all. Or were you thinking Orangutan perhaps?
Happened again today didn’t it! People need to wise up.