Sunday, August 26, 2007

The Great Disaster of 2007

Rain, rain, and more rain. The duck weed pond remained out of reach all week, the creek flooded, the footpath submerged. Then at last, yesterday, the sun. In the evening the waters subsided enough that walking the path was possible without being swept away.

Okay, yes, I did have to take off my shoes and wade through some mud. Squish, squish, squish, slippery creek mud around my ankles, in between my toes. Perhaps there will be a great disaster in the next few days, say a meteor, something spectacular, a quick death, not like the relatively slow effects of global warming, and my footprints will become fossilized and thousands of years from now someone will discover them and say, "Look, footprints, along this ancient creek bed. This unfortunate woman was probably fleeing from the great disaster, the meteor of 2007, (except they won't call it that) but it overtook her. Isn't it wonderful that we have her footprints here immortalized in the mud to forever mark her passing! Poor thing." Young children will come to look and study the distance between each of my toes and the length of my stride. They'll test the mud to see if there are any traces of foot fungus. They'll probably mark the place where I almost lost my balance and left long skid marks. They will argue about whether or not I was a lousy walker, unbalanced to begin with, or whether the mud in this particular place was just so slippery I was bound to slide. Oh, I imagine they're going to have fun with me, let me tell you. But they probably won't be able to tell I was headed for the duck weed pond and its green serenity. They certainly won't know that all the duck weed was missing, swept down the creek in the rain.

4 comments:

Talia Reed said...

I heard on the news that the creek was flooded. I guess that happens every now and then. Whenever I hear about flash floods I always say to my husband, "why do most people, including us, not have flood insurance?"

Charmi said...

The creek floods several times a year, to varying degrees, but usually not in August. Our house is high enough and far enough away not to be threatened, so I don't worry about that. But high water can get you in other ways. Half the teenage boys/men in the neighborhood have stories of riding the creek during the flood in their canoes. It is so tempting. My own husband had to replace a canoe he borrowed & lost in this manner one cold, rainy Thanksgiving weekend. He was 20-something, should have known better, just had to do it...

Rachel said...

Can I vote for "unbalanced from the beginning"? :)

Charmi said...

Yes, it seems a strong possibility.