One of the perks of living in our community is that there is a little bit of security in knowing that you have to be “admitted” . All of the entrances/exits have gates and guardhouses that are manned during certain hours and are always monitored by video cameras. Is it foolproof? No. Does it mean that anyone can just drive right on in even if they have no business being here? Usually not. While it is not high level security it does allow people a sense a safety which is a good thing.

We have little bar codes on our cars that the camera sees and then allows the gate to be raised. Imagine my surprise when we came home from the beach and the gate didn’t open. I backed up and repositioned the car and thought that would do it.

Nope.

Fortunately there was no one behind me so I was able to back up and go to the guest gate, ring the main gate and give them my info and have them open the gate remotely. But it was weird. Really weird.

When we got home I forgot all about it until Chris came in and told me he had wiped the seagull poop off my bar code. Yes, apparently a seagull visited my car and left quite a good glob of poo right on the barcode and it was just enough to keep it from being able to be scanned and read.

There’s a lesson there, isn’t there? Even though that little amount of poo wasn’t much it was enough to hinder the proper functioning of the camera and thus the gate would not open. Just like in our own lives when we allow the nasty things in life to accumulate it restricts us from living our life to the fullest. The lesson is to keep that barcode clean and soldier on!