Let Us Build an Ark

We took grandson on a short hike today. On the way out, he complained that he wanted to turn around--he was too tired. At the appointed turn around, he happened to find a beetle which we put on a stick to carry back to the car (ultimately, we left the bug in the wild). Well, wouldn't you know it--not another word said the whole trip back about being tired so fascinated was he by that beetle!!

Afterwards, I bagged up the piles of trash along the Camp May Road Route. I had placed most of the piles very close to the road and parking areas so I expected all this to go rather fast and I even planned to do my jogging practice afterwards. Well, don’t count your chickens before they hatch was surely operative today!! Things were going swimmingly until rain, hail, thunder, and lightning hit. I had just driven to the 3rd trash pickup spot. I had a false start there looking around for the trash pile but forgetting exactly where I had put it and when the precip started, my car was right there so I scampered gratefully into it. I had parked under a tree because all was clear when I first pulled up. Waiting in the car, feeling it vibrate from the occasional thunder, I had visions of lightning hitting the tree and exploding shards into the car’s windows--what a way to go--but I was too dumb to turn on the engine and move the car. I just sat there feeling sorry for myself and then remembered that I had the May 2007 copy of local flavor magazine. I sat and read two of the articles that had looked so interesting that I hadn’t had time to read before.

At one point, I thought the rain had let up and got out to look for the trash pile again and then it really started hailing and thunder and lightning seemed all too close so I mutteringly retreated back to the car. I waited in the car about a half hour before it let up enough for me to retrieve the wretched trash and I, horrors, got plenty wet in the process.

Then I went on to the next to last pile and I managed during a brief lull in the storm to walk over to the tree where I had stashed the trash on a styrofoam cooler lid. But, then it started raining again and really hard as I walked back to the car, holding the trash with both hands and trying to balance the umbrella over one shoulder--I was not amused! I put the trash behind the car and sat waiting about 15 minutes for it to let up enough to put the trash in the trunk. This stop was at the Ocean and I was discouraged to see that someone had thrown beer cans around since I had last done some trash pickup there.

At the very last stop, near West Jemez Road, rain was still coming down but not in such a rush. This trash pile was really strange because someone had thrown underneath a bush unopened cans of food, including a tin of sardines. The labels had fallen off the cans and they were rusted and bulging. Why would someone waste food?

During the deluge, I kept muttering to myself that it doesn’t rain this much here--the storm lasted over an hour--and kept telling myself in astonishment that it doesn’t even look like it should be raining--the sky was so bright--and bemoaning how it always rains when I collect trash on Camp May Road. Which brings me to my idea on how to bust the drought in the Southwest--I could take my trash collecting act on the road!! I hear, though, that Florida may be wanting my services too--the drought is so bad there, according to my brother-in-law, that there is worry about the aquifer becoming tainted by saltwater. And all we have to worry about here in Lost Almost is chromium and arsenic in our drinking water.....