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mysterious water pipe

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Posted by Zonie on February 12, 2024 at 02:49:25

Enrique has graciously offered his services for another week, and Julio has walked back his talk of resignation. Apparently it was just a fantasy. Our boss hired someone who was related to two people who have resigned and two who are still here. Nepotism is a long tradition at this company. My lead didn't go so well. I asked the customer if his son had applied. He said he never even got off the couch. It's one thing for him to say his son isn't terribly bright, but I can't have much hope in someone who is too lazy to apply for the job.

Phoenix got about 1/3" of rain Tuesday, ¼" on Thursday and another ¼" Friday night. These impulses have squeezed moisture out of the atmosphere by subsequent waves of relatively cold air. Those from Ontario and Maine would consider this weather mild, and those from Britian and Ireland would consider it more or less normal, but for us it's cold. Friday morning a golf tournament in nearby Scottsdale was delayed due to frost. I thought that was why some golf balls are orange, but apparently that's not good enough.

I decided for this reason not to do a wallow but to play in the mud with my glue-repaired Tony Lama boots and my gaiters at the west segment of Reach 11 Saturday. I found plenty of good stomping and splashing mud on the trails, but for some reason all this rain still wasn't enough to make the mesquite thickets boggy. The abandoned minivan had been removed, so that issue was resolved.

The gaiters didn't fit well over my boots. I guess gaiters are designed for shorter boots. I did have size XL, but that wasn't enough. It was the largest size the Arizona Hiking Shack had when I went to buy them years ago. Still, although they were loose, they didn't interfere with my stomping. The parking lot puddle was certainly deep enough to clean my boots at the end, so in the end there wasn't much point in the gaiters.

Although soggy socks are part of the fun of a mud hike, I was a bit suspicious that my left sock got soggy long before my right sock. I suspected the glue repair had come undone. When I took off my boots in the evening, I found that the glue repair was still intact, but the other side of the boot was coming loose. It seems the glue was stronger than the original stitching. I don't think I'll bother the cobbler again with these boots. I'll just have fun in the mud with them until they fall apart completely.

In that spirit I wore those boots again today, though without the gaiters, and today I went to the east segment of Reach 11. It was good mud stomping and outdoor exercise, but it was far from peaceful. For some time I heard a hiker on a different trail shouting at length into his mobile phone about some football controversy. On top of that the coyotes were repeatedly howling and yipping in broad daylight. The first time and one subsequent time they were answering a fire engine, but on many other occasions I heard no stimulus to explain it. Maybe some prankster was playing with a dog whistle or had put out a large bowl of coffee for the pack.

As I neared the 56th Street overpass, I deviated to a feeder trail to see if there was good mud there. Behind the mesquite thicket I saw a water hole larger than would seem to have been explained by the recent rain. As I approached I then heard the sound of running water flowing down the bank of the adjacent Central Arizona Project Canal. I was reminded of a story I had heard in childhood called "The Leak in the Dike."

I climbed the bank following the strange stream partly obscured by brush. Soon the stream was contained by concrete and eventually I came to a pipe near the top of the bank. It was clearly above the water level in the canal, so it wasn't some kind of overflow pipe. The authorities were deliberately irrigating the mesquite thicket with canal water, but it wasn't clear why. When contemplating the mysterious water source, it occurred to me that today is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, but if wading in that water cured me of anything, I'm not aware of it.

I backtracked to the main trail and splashed through the mud puddles to the 56th Street overpass, and there was wonderful road runoff mud under it, so I stomped around in that for a while and then turned back. As much noise as the coyotes were making in broad daylight, I didn't want to have to deal with them after dark.


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