The Great Cheez Ball Conflict

We watched as a woman walked on the beach towards the water.  She was carrying a plastic bag and heading towards a flock of about a dozen seagulls and other sea birds.  The woman reached into the bag, and then threw a handful of something towards the birds, which the birds eagerly pounced upon and started consuming.  It was Cheez balls.  The woman eventually simply dumped the remaining Cheez balls on the sand, and walked back away from the water, towards the building where she was staying.  The birds ate some of the Cheez balls, but there were still a significant amount of Cheez balls remaining in more or less a pile on the beach, with a bird pecking at the Cheeze balls every now and then.  My thought was that the birds had their fill for the moment.

About three minutes later, another woman who had been walking along the beach came by and stopped at the pile of Cheez balls.  From my vantage point, it appeared as though this woman was doing something with her foot along the lines of putting the Cheez balls into a tighter pile.  But as she continued working with her foot, it became apparent to me that this woman was trying to cover up the Cheez balls with sand. She completed the task in a couple of minutes, leaving what appeared to be a non-descript pile of sand.  She stood next to that sand pile for a couple of minutes, during which time several birds started pecking at that pile.  This woman then walked about 30 feet away from the pile, a little bit towards the water, and began speaking to another person.

A couple of minutes later, the first woman re-appeared on the beach, walking determinedly from the building towards the sand pile.  Woman number 2 started slowly walking away from the person with whom she'd been speaking and towards woman number 1, obviously saying something to woman number 1.  Woman number 1 continued her determined-looking walk towards the sand pile, looked directly at woman number 2 and gave woman number 2 the finger, as well as saying something to woman number 2.  I wish I would have been able to hear what was being said between the two women, but even though I was likely less than 100 feet away, the beautiful sounds of the surf crashing against the sand was all I could hear.

The battle apparently wasn't over.  Woman number 1 had something else in her hand. She threw it towards the birds, and the birds again rushed to get something more to eat.  By now, woman number 2 had her cell phone out and appeared to be taking pitures or videos.  Neither woman touched the other, but it was evident that they were exchanging words.  At one point woman number 1 got a sarcastic-looking smile on her face and waved at the camera.  After about another minute, woman number 1 stomped off back towards the building, and woman number 2 stayed on the beach for a while, talking to other people.

As I am composing this, about 5 hours has passed since the "Great Cheez Ball Conflict," and that little, non-descript sand pile is still there. The only thing that seems to call attention to the pile is the small sea birds that continue to go back and peck at the pile.

And I keep thinking about the fact that within another several hours, the tide will likely move up as high as the sand pile, thereby exposing the Cheez balls once again as the sand gets washed away...