Skateboarding

I saw something amazing today, something I'm glad I lived long enough to see. And in a way I saw it twice, but let's just go with the first one first:

I saw a kid on a skateboard who seemed to be using it as a means of transportation. That is, he was going from here to somewhere else, in a straight line, on a course that, if pursued, would get him there.

This is amazing for obvious reasons. As we all know, skateboards were apparently made for simply standing on and trying to flip over, or to jump curbs. That's about all you ever see anyway, kids endlessly trying and failing, trying and failing, then occasionally succeeding, to flip it over and remain upright.

The other incident -- and this isn't as rare -- was a kid on one of those two wheel skateboards, which must be fairly new -- new to me -- and he also was going from one place to another. But these look like they're designed more for getting around, and they look like they ride in a smoother way.

Later in the day, then, my normal sensibilities were restored, when I was driving along and saw a kid with a skateboard. He waited for me to pass, then I looked in the rearview mirror in time to see him standing on it and trying to flip it over. Of course he failed.