2007-07-22-0004Z


A rarity -- it rained most of the day today, normally the rain falls at night, even during the "monsoon" season. I put on my sil poncho and went for a walk downtown, primarily to leave a sign with prices at my art exhibit, but I wasn't disappointed when I found the place locked up. I stood for a while on the porch of the old Customs building, watching the muddy river flow past along highway 11, then started walking back home.

A few blocks North, I saw an old 55-gallon drum with no bottom that I never felt like carrying before, but a rainy day makes a world of difference; I picked it up and carried it almost a mile to my place. When I got to the arroyo, I was surprised to find another river; the rain had already pretty much stopped. I left the barrel on the bank, and cautiously started across, but the turbulent water almost carried off one of my Crocs; so I sat down on the bank and just watched it for a while, fascinated, dreaming of having a kayak just for these moments and getting a free ride to Padre Island. But I got tired of waiting, and again attempted to wade across, this time facing upstream and stepping sideways, so the current would hold my Crocs on rather than pull them off... it worked! But my barrel was still on the other side, blocking the road. Poor planning. After dithering a while, I made it back across, grabbed the barrel, and went a few yards further upstream before carrying it across. I made it 3 times without getting carried away by the current... maybe it's true what my buddy Bill Pick used to say about God watching over drunks and fools.

Forgot to mention, a dog was acting strangely along Highway 11, walking down the middle and barking at traffic. I thought for sure he'd get run over, or more likely I'd get run over with some idiot swerving to avoid the dog and running off the road, but we both seemed to have made it home OK. But on the way back, I saw something that made some possible sense of the dog's behavior; another dog, black, lay dead in the ditch, perhaps a companion of the brown dog that was acting weird. Perhaps Brownie wanted someone to stop and try to help his companion, or he wanted to fight those huge steel animals that had killed his mate, or he just wanted to get run over too, and die. Guess I'll never know for sure.

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