The Rock

 I went to the city office this past Monday and someone told me about a huge rock that had fallen into the road down by the tunnel. I guess rock isn't the correct word, boulder would be more accurate I suppose. In any event I'm glad that there weren't any people or cars running by when it decided to go tumbling. That might have made for a messy situation. It's kind of ironic that the mountain that this boulder came from was the subject of much debate a few years ago. The powers that be, both the local native organization and the mayor and city council somehow came to the conclusion that it was too dangerous for tourists to be walking by the tunnel. They feared that a rock might fall down and hurt someone. Of course that was never a concern for the local people  here. It wasn't until tourists started showing that there was any thought for anyone's safety. In any event, obscene amounts of money were spent blowing tons of rock off the side of the mountain, and as far as I can tell, it only made things worse. Now the whole side of the mountain is fractured and as you can see from the pictures above, on occasion, big slabs periodically descend upon the road. Frankly, I didn't see how they were going to move it. I'm not sure what it weighs, but I didn't believe the city had any equipment that was up to the task. I'm not even sure where they put it. I can only assume it was pushed over the side of the bank and will in time provide habitat for some under water creatures. I did a little research when I went to write this post. If you type in The Rock, several items come up. One is Dwayne Johnson, the big, handsome actor who used to be in the WWF for eight years. Aside from acting, he's also a producer and business man. I did not know that. The Rock was also a title for a 1996 movie  starring Sean Connery, Nicholas Cage, and Ed Harris. I remember watching it. Something about terrorists taking over Alcatraz and using it as a staging area to blow up San Francisco. The most memorable part of the movie for me was a song involving Connery's daughter Jade. I love that name. Not surprisingly, the song was titled Jade. Lovely song.  I also checked out Rock of Ages. It used to be (and still is I suppose) an old hymn about Christ. It's also the title of a musical about rock bands. Interesting. Then I decided to take a look at the Rock of Gibralter.  Located on the Iberian Peninsula, it guards the entrance into the Mediterranean Sea. When I was in the navy we stopped and spent the night there. It's of major military importance. The rock is honeycombed with caves and is home to some 230 Barbary Macaques. They apparently aren't overly friendly. One article I read mentioned that in 2012 over fifty people were attacked by the monkeys. When we first arrived at the Rock we received a plan of the day which mentioned that the the apes were allowed free reign in the area, and that if one came to your outdoor table and sat on it and did all manner of uncouth behaviors, there wasn't a blasted thing you could do about it. They were protected. It also mentioned that there was a large gay population there. Not wishing to have a confrontation with either a monkey or a gay man, I opted to stay on the ship.  A few other interesting tidbits that I gleaned were that the rock is 1380 feet tall. It is part of Britain, having been won from Spain in the the 1700's;  John Lennon and Yoko Ono were married there in 1969; it was once considered one of the Pillars of Hercules, and there are no rivers or springs in the area. Until the 1990's an area around the Catalan and Sandy bays was sheeted over to be used as a catch basin for any rain, which was stored in tanks. Now it gets it's fresh water from de-salination stations. One last thing. Apparently there is a saying- no apes, no empire. The belief is that if the apes leave the area, Britain will lose control over Gibralter. And that's all I have to say about that.  I doubt that anyone is ever going to name the boulder that slid off the mountain The Rock of Hoonah. In fact if it's in the drink where I think it is, no one will even know it's there at high tide. If it's ever thought of, I'd like to hope that it would be remembered as Knucklehead Rock, as a tribute to the greedy knuckleheads who thought it was a good idea to mess with the mountain.