Good Idea/Bad Idea

I was out running some errands the other day, and like other days off from work, all errands run in and around our little (large) hamlet of the LBC are done by bicycle. After finishing up, I went back to the veritable freeway for bikes on the west side of town, the LA River Bikeway.

At this point in the LA River's meandering path--near the terminus here at the LA/LB Harbors, is less meandering than forced linearity. It's not so much paved as it is controlled by artificial banks.

But, along the Bikeway that runs north from the ocean along the river twelve miles or so, at least here, there has been either purposefully planted, accidentally placed, or wildly growing grapes.



At some point I stopped and examined a few bunches.



The last few times I've been out on the Bikeway there haven't been even any grape buds, but this time, there were many unripened bunches.

The title of this post concerns a decision I had to make. Should I pluck an unripe specimen of a wild bunch of grapes that are growing on the LA River's freaking Bikeway? A flowing collection of water I would do my damnedest to avoid contacting?

If you know me, or have been reading this site long enough, I hope you can correctly guess how I proceeded.

Unripened fruit is something for which I've always had a weakness. My brother and my friend Chris Farley and I used to gorge ourselves on unripened plums from a tree on our street. Later that day we'd suffer the consequences of such snacks.

This experience was not without discomfort, which is quite remarkable considering the iron stomach I have hidden under my hairy beer-belly.