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a dent in the drought

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Posted by Zonie on February 01, 2021 at 04:43:06

I saw my dentist, Dr. Jabr, Thursday morning. He's a Palestinian. He said, "There's too much unrest in America these days. I need to move back to the Middle East where it's safe."

Well we're certainly having interesting times, and I have met some interesting people. One of the demonstration leaders I met in December was Jake Angeli. I came home from work the night of the 6th of January, checked out the internet news services, and he featured very prominently in them. He was photographed standing where Nancy Pelosi normally stands. I could boast at work that I had met someone infamous. He had told us he planned to go to DC and protest at the Capitol, but he hadn't told us he planned to storm INTO the Capitol. Well France had the Bastille, and Russia had the Winter Palace. Maybe it's a sign that this relatively young nation is maturing.

A lot of people look back on 2020 as having been a bad year. There was certainly some unpleasantness, but there was plenty of good as well. The first three months I got to play in the mud a lot. I was also pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to defy tyranny. I refused to wear masks or follow lockdown regulations and still managed to buy the necessities of life and to keep my job. The police left me alone the whole year. I think part of that was a flaw in the enemy's position. The same people who were trying to impose severe restrictions were also trying to defund the police, and if there's one thing you need to enforce a police state it's police. There I'll give Premier Daniel Andrews credit for being a more clever despot than any of our American governors. He understood that he couldn't impose all those restrictions and defund the police. I wouldn't have done so well had I lived in Victoria.

After that lovely wet winter, we went almost straight into summer with hardly any spring, and it stayed hot well into autumn, and the southeast monsoon failed as well. We had a little rain in early December, but it had looked to be a drought winter.

A drought winter can be hazardous to me, because when I don't get to play in the mud, I tend to take exercise in more dangerous ways. It also didn't help that my 83-year-old mountain climbing partner was isolating himself from the plague and refused to go with me, so he could not be a restraint. The Christmas climb of Squaw Peak was uneventful, but I overestimated my abilities when I tried to climb Camelback Mountain. I had done it in only two hours round trip back when I was only 44 years old and only 290 lbs., but now that I'm 54 and 330 lbs, it was a lot tougher. I convinced myself to turn back about two-thirds of the way up. I finally found some trails that were aerobic but not terribly dangerous, but I still missed the mud.

The storm finally came last weekend, and I knew where to go. In November 2019 construction crews had torn up the ground around the Reach 11 Equestrian Center supposedly for expansion of the center, but since then they had done nothing. The ground still being torn up, I figured it was a great mud opportunity, and indeed it was.

The trouble with last Sunday was that it was too cold for full wallowing, but I put on my boots and gaiters and did some mud splashing. I got in plenty of that. I was hoping for rain, but my timing was poor. I had missed most of it. In the afternoon there was thunder and lightning, but the thundersnow was coming down over the McDowell Mountains, not near me. Monday there was more rain, and some graupel and in some areas snow, but I had to work. I figured it would recharge the mud for the weekend. There was some light rain Friday as well.

Today was partly cloudy and 72°F (22°C). This time I was going to get muddy and wet, no gaiters, just old work boots and overalls and splashing right through. A lot of the mud was gone. With the long drought it must have soaked right in, but I found enough in the deep spots for a good wallow. I stomped around to churn up the mud and sat down and then kneeled in it. Two bicyclists rode by on the trail but took no notice of me. I then reclined on my back and splashed it on my chest.

I got up, heard a fire engine and then heard the coyotes answer it. I was shocked at the direction from which I heard them. It was to the southeast. The pack was hanging out near the parking area. They usually shun people. Maybe the construction disrupted their habitat.

Covered with thick mud, I decided to try a normal hike to exercise it off. One woman with a dog gave me a very wide berth, but I encountered nobody else. After a couple hours the sun was setting, and most of the mud had fallen off my overalls. It was quite a satisfying day, but it was time to drive home and clean up.


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