Entropy

I noticed that one of my neighbor's fences was looking a little ragged the other day. But it was a split rail, made out of wood, and frankly still looked pretty good in its decaying state. The natural and organic segue from wood to earth is actually pretty graceful.

When you live in the country, your fences tell something about you. The Orange County types tend to go for the clean plastic look. Real farmers and ranchers put the horizontal rails of the wood fencing on the inside of the posts, so livestock won't kick them off from inside the pens but a lot of city slickers who move to the hinterlands and buy the tony little ranchettes never get the message and stick them on the outside. Very faux looking. Kind of dumb.

My own look is chain link spartan. Very retro, screams "he doesn't give a shit." And perhaps poor.

I have noticed that a lot of the old plastic doesn't seem to wear real well either, at least around these parts it is starting to show its age.

A lot of it is coming apart in Fallbrook. I meant to take some pictures but never got around to it. The picture above was taken by me after the fire. The stuff takes on the Dali "dripping clocks" taffy look when it starts to melt. Very synthetic, not my thing. even the stuff that didn't get burned looks pretty funky in time. Call me a luddite traditionalist. The fake grain reminds me of the simulated wood panels on our family's old avocado green '64 plymouth fury station wagon.

We all have our likes and dislikes. I confess to squirm a little inside when I see a porcine foot stuffed into a tiny pump or heel whose occupant is sporting a large and ugly ankle tattoo. But I am sure it is the cat's meow for some people.

But do mark me down for hates plastic fencing. I know it is supposed to last a minimum of five thousand years but it really looks terrible in the meantime.