These days staying at home so much we’re all in need of getting out into the fresh air and sunshine and stretching our legs and what’s more inviting than our beaches, but we need to be careful of others around us as we might be a bit out of practice with umbrellas.
So much so that I had to send this warning to the manager of our oceanfront condo yesterday after my wife and I almost witnessed from our balcony a serious accident on the beach caused by a flying umbrella.
The umbrella was hurtling dangerously up the beach in a brisk wind that could have injured or put someone’s eye out as it was moving so rapidly.
These were obviously condo residents or guests who late in the day Sunday still had both their umbrellas open in a stiff 12 to 14 mph wind when one of them came out of the sand and was blowing north on the beach whose pole nearly stabbed a young woman who had run toward it to stop it from flying.
No one was hurt, thank God, and the embarrassed owner of the umbrella came running after it apologizing.
The moral of this story is to advise people to close their umbrellas in high wind so they don’t become airborne and pose a threat to others, especially children.
What’s the purpose of an umbrella after 4 pm anyway? Let’s be sensible and close them when it’s so windy.
You don’t want to commit and be found guilty of umbrellacide.