Well the morning started out pretty normally. Got up, dad had gone off to do some grocery shopping and whatever else he does. Mom was at work, and Dusty was baking in the sun near the window. I took a couple laps around the house to get my legs to wake up. I began to play with Dusty and took the above photo (he's so cute isn't he?) Some rain clouds rolled in and I heard some sprinkles, but nothing heavy. After playing with Dusty for a little bit I was feeling a bit hungry. I got up and turned on the oven, and looked out my front window and saw that the entire street was FLOODED!
I ran outside with my phone and took this picture. The picture doesn't do the flood justice. I stood in the water and it came up to my ankles on both sides of the street. I ran back inside amazed at this phenomena. I turned off the oven, dried my feet, and got dressed in some good clothes, and walked up the street, and found the flooding to be even worse. I followed the stream a block away from my house and came to an intersection that was turned into a lake.
I knew that I had to follow this stream, but I wanted a way to get through this water easier. I originally thought to get in my car and follow it up, but it would be hard to take photos of the street from my car. So when I got home I decided to take my bike. After checking the tires and filling them with air, I set out to find the source of this.
A little explanation of the area I live in (for those who don't know.) My neighborhood and the ones around it are on an incline, a pretty steep one too. This is because we essentially live at the base of a mountain. A lot of us don't consider it the base, because the actual base is quite a few miles up the road, but to people from out of town my neighborhood could be considered the base. Knowing this, I thought that the mountain had got some heavy rain, and all that was washing down my way. Thinking about how far the mountain was from my house I knew that I had to choose a point to turn back. There is a street called Ventura that's a good distance from my house (for my athletic ability lol), and I had decided that if the stream was to lead me past this point I would just turn away.
I Traveled far up a major road near my house, and the stream suddenly curved off. At this point it was obvious that this was no mountain wash off, because otherwise all the streets ahead of me would be flooded the same. I followed the stream's new direction and got to another intersection, but this one wasn't as bad as the the first intersection.
The peculiar thing about this water was that it was a muddy color, a lot like the Rio Grande (which runs through my city.) I began to wonder what else could be the cause of all this water. I highly doubted that anyone would use this much water to wash their car, or water their lawn. Every thought I had brought me back to the color of the water. It was the color of mud, but a little more clear, like really watered down mud. I kept on cycling, and realized I was soon approaching my turn back point. As the view of my turn back point came into view, I also found my answer.
There had been crews repairing the streets at various parts around my neighborhood, and apparently these guys had accidentally hit a water main. The water had been slowed by a pumping machine. This machine seemed to act as a temporary pipe pumping water from one part of the injured pipe to the other. As I arrived a big truck arrived as well. I'm sure these guys didn't want a guy on his bike staring at them, so I took my picture and was off again.
The ride back was a lot of fun. I always enjoy downhill rides on bikes. I came back to the original intersection and saw that it was still flooded. My original thought was "Okay, slow down, and take the corner slowly." But the little boy in me came up yelling "FULL SPEED AHEAD!" So, with great speed, I plowed through the intersection with an explosion of water. Emerging on the other side of the intersection I was covered in muddy water laughing. There was a man in a truck behind me. I turned to look at him, and he too was laughing to himself. I pulled up to my house in my soaken clothes and put my bike away.
"When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart." ~Diane Ackerman
"Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~Albert Einstein
1 comment:
Life has got a habit of not standing hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don't change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to do nothing and kept on dwelling in the past.
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