November 27, 2020 – Not such a ‘dead end’ after all (PART TWO).

Hello again! I’m back to finish off my story about all of the adventures we have living on a dead end street. Of course, things wouldn’t be quite as interesting if a canal wasn’t directly beside it, but that’s what gives the story that extra ‘kick’, that little nugget that changes the story from ‘meh’ to ‘wow’. It’s almost like when you make chili. There’s the version when you say, “Meh, that was alright.” And then there’s the version when you say, “Wow! That chili had a little kick to it!” It gives it a little more interest, a little more pizzazz. See what I mean? When you add the canal to the dead end street, it’s essentially like adding cayenne pepper to your chili. It gives it a little ‘kick’. What’s so special about the canal? Great question! I’m not sure that I would say it’s ‘special’ necessarily but it definitely acts like a repository for things other than water, that’s for sure!

Ordinarily, the canal is utilized to channel the water throughout the valley where I live to help irrigate the fields and crops. It manages, however, to attract other things, primarily animals. Every year in late spring, a couple of Mallards make themselves at home right alongside it (in front of our house). They rest beside it and in between, they use the canal as a source of water and food. And sure enough, within a month or two, a brood of baby ducklings makes an appearance. Sometimes there’ll only be 2 ducklings, but I’ve seen as many as 11. In addition to ducklings, I’ve seen robins and sparrows and flickers and crows. Because there are birds, there also tend to be cats. And, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention dogs. They’re actually the primary animal you’ll see because many people use the path beside it as a convenient place to walk their dogs, including myself. Other animals are drawn to the canal and this is apparent due to the tracks they leave behind. I’ve actually seen a majestic herd of mule deer walking along it during the winter months. It is really quite amazing!

Are you tired of me rattling on and on about inconsequential things? You want me to get to the heart of the matter once and for all?! Alright, already! So I told you that twice this year we’ve had a couple of interesting ‘incidents’ that have occurred out in front of our home. One happened yesterday and one happened over the summer. The incident over the summer involved a motorcycle and an inexperienced motorist. And the canal happened to be full of water at the time. As I mentioned earlier, people always end up taking our street (despite the signs) and end up having to pull a U-turn. In this case, it was a woman that had bought a brand new motorcycle. I guess she was trying to get used to it and when she hit the gravel to turn around, she lost control and ended up in the repository (the canal). I had no idea anything had happened. I was actually sleeping in my room and perfectly content reading the back of my eyelids. But I was awakened with a start when my husband came running up the stairs and proceeded to yank off his pants and throw on some swim trunks.

“What the heck’s going on?” I asked him. “There’s a lady in the canal!” he responded breathlessly, right before he flew back down the stairs and out the front door. I wasn’t sure whether I heard him right, so I walked over to the window and looked out, and sure enough, there was a woman standing in the canal, the water just at her shoulders. She wasn’t moving and I wasn’t sure exactly why. But after my husband slid into the water and made his way over to her, I realized that she was holding onto a motorcycle, attempting to keep it upright. I didn’t know whether to help but my husband’s a strong, capable guy and I thought if I tried to intervene, I’d probably just make things worse. More than likely, he’d end up having to rescue two women rather than one, so I decided to stay put. It looked like he had everything under control anyway. Once in the water, he immediately got up beside the motorcycle, gripped the handlebars and started to push it towards a ramp that was a few yards up ahead. But it wasn’t easy as the bottom of the canal was covered in slime, and the bike was still in gear (which he didn’t realize until he got it halfway up the ramp).

Once he pushed the motorcycle out of the water, he asked her if she was alright. She said she was upset but less about the motorcycle and more about people looking the other way when seeing someone clearly in distress. As it turns out, at least two other men walked right past her when she was standing in the frigid water and didn’t feel a need to respond. She said they made direct eye contact but apparently couldn’t be bothered. Maybe they had a roast in the oven that would have dried out if they hadn’t returned on time? Nobody likes a dried-out roast, especially when it develops a consistency similar to leather. Or maybe they would have missed an entire episode of Judge Judy had they taken those extra 30 minutes to help someone out? Who knows the reason. I just think to myself when I hear those things, “What the heck is the matter with people?!” Fortunately, after the two ‘gentlemen’ confidently strode by without giving her predicament a second thought, she happened to notice my husband taking out the trash.

When she spotted my husband, she desperately called out, “Can you help me?!” He didn’t hear her at first, but then she called out a second time and that got his attention. After he saw the dilemma she was in and ascertained that she wasn’t injured and not in danger of drowning, that’s when he ran back to the house, changed out of his pants and raced back to assist her. You, of course, know what follows (up to a point). Yes, he helped her get her motorcycle out of the water after she unwittingly drove it into the canal, but there’s more to the story. This is the best part! It was clear something else was troubling her, apart from the anger and disappointment she was feeling about people’s apathy towards her situation. She was worried. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time she’d decided to take one of her vehicles for a swim. And she wasn’t sure how her husband was going to react when he found out she’d ‘done it again’. About a month or two prior, after she’d purchased a brand new ATV, she drove it into the canal as well. You cannot make this stuff up, my friends!

How that all ended, I cannot be sure. Just like with the lady we found sitting beside the canal in the early hours of dawn (in part one), after she was ‘rescued’, we never heard from her again. I hope she had good insurance. But I also hope that she learned a lesson from the experience and has decided to stick with cars as a mode of transportation, or at least something she can better control. And certainly driving lessons wouldn’t be such a bad idea. There comes a time when you should ask for help, and when you continually deposit your vehicles into bodies of water, I think that’s a pretty good indicator that it’s time. Anyway, here I go again. I’ve prattled on exclusively about one thing and it’s late and I am nowhere near finishing up my ‘point’. Did I have a point? I’ve lost track. Yes, I had a point! But I’ll have to get to it later. Happy Thanksgiving, by the way! And I pinky promise to only drag this out one more day. See you tomorrow!

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