[at-l] Speaking of messier (mark, that is)

[kent_gardam at yahoo.com (Kent Gardam)]

Saturday was a "Clean Your Streams" event in Toledo,
our church was sending a group to participate, and not
having anything better to do bright and early, thought
I would venture over and get my good deed for the
millenium out of the way.  A hundred or so met in the
park, signed away our rights, munched on bagels and
got our stream assignments.  As we drove over to our
location it decided to rain.  Where was that in the
forecast?  We happened to get a fairly civilized
portion of the Ottawa River and so we were mostly
relegated to finding the omnipresent cigarette butts,
pop bottles, food wrappers, beer cans and Taco Bell
sauce packets.  I was beginning to despair of
something better when I stumbled across a hockey stick
handle in the underbrush.  Ah ha, a useful find!  Not
only good for triangulation support (how convenient
that it was the perfect length), but also useful for
bushwhacking and fishing styrofoam cups out of the
stream.  With its help I even discovered a wooden
pallet in the weeds.  Ah, now we're getting somewhere!
 The other highlights of our expedition included an
old tire, a wooden spool for wire cable, and almost
enough golf balls to make practicing worthwhile.  The
boyscouts on the other bank found a metal door.  It
sure seems like it must have taken a lot more effort
to drag some of this stuff down to the river bank just
to get rid of it than it would to set it at the curb
and let the city pick it up. 

Afterwards, a picnic of dogs, slaw, cucumber salad,
and great beans and even a new teeshirt for the
collection to proclaim environmental awareness.  A
very nice morning, even if it did rain the whole time.

Anyway, back to the point (well what will have to
suffice for one in a mostly pointless post).  I sure
liked the support from my new friend, the broken
hockey stick.  Reluctant was I (in a Yoda sort of
way)to add my new found friend to the pile.  So I
guess I'll have to start paying more attention to the
hiking pole displays next time I'm at the outfitters.

Kent Gardam


		
__________________________________ 
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 
http://mail.yahoo.com