Cocoon mode* - day 11: Old man charges up steep grade on four-wheeler and then charges back down again; fall from the car
Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 7:03AM ;)
As I rode my bicycle along the two-foot wide path on the other side of the guardrail from Seldon, just over the steep drop off that could surely cripple or kill me if I were to lose control and plunge over, I heard the screaming engine of a four-wheeler, churning out more RPM's than it was built to churn. I could not see it, because there were some leaves hanging from some bushes that blocked my view, but I immediately surmised that it had to be a kid, trying to charge up the steep grade you see here.
Just ahead, there was an opening through the leaves, so I pedaled to that spot as fast as I could. When I got there, the four-wheeler was nearing the top. I stopped, dug into my pocket and pulled out the pocket camera.
Auuugh!!!!
It was still set on last night's settings for very low-light photography: 1600 ISO, 1/10th of a second. If I were to try to take a picture at those settings, under this bright sun, all I would get would be a blinding, white, glare.
I quickly dialed the ISO down to 100 and set the shutter speed at 1/400th of a second, but by then the rider had topped the hill and had turned around to go back down.
I was surprised to see that he was not a kid at all, but an old man, with white hair and a white beard. Just like that, he dropped over the edge and charged back down the grade.
I then hoped that he would turn around and charge back up again so I could get a climbing picture, but he didn't.
He just kept going and drove through the abandoned, dug-out gravel pit that the lying developers never did turn into a pleasant neighborhood lake, the way they had promised they would do way back when they first tore up the wetlands above it. In those horrid days, a lone man sitting on the seat of a gravel extracting machine would work all the way through the summer night and if the air was flowing from him towards our house, I could not sleep over the rattling and crunching of the gravel being ground through that machine.
A few times, I got out of bed and went to talk to the man doing the extraction and his response was... "f.. you." It was summer, it was light and he was going to work through the night, the peace and sleep of the neighborhood be damned.
I would return home, climb back in bed and, unable to sleep, would fantasize about returning with my 30.06 so that I could pop the rude sob right off the seat of his machine.
Irrational, I know and I knew it then and I would not have done it, but so works the human mind when it is tormented and deprived of sleep night after night just because someone is rude.
At least when it was all over, we were to have this nice neighborhood lake, but instead we got an ugly pit.
As for this old man who charged up the hill today and then turned and charged back down, my feelings were mixed. On the one hand, I admired him, for not yielding easy to the calendar, for not giving into his years.
On the other hand, after he exited the gravel pit, he continued on and I saw him disappear into the marsh, the one behind my house. He was headed toward where the property owner across from us keeps putting up signs and baricades to try to keep the four-wheelers out, because they have done so much damage to the vegetation. Yet, the drivers just keep finding ways to get in and they just keep tearing up the property.
With kids, you can kind of understand, but with an old man whose hair is white...
But then, I don't know... perhaps he turned away before he reached that man's property. Perhaps he lives in one of the houses further down from ours that borders the marsh. Perhaps he has a trail that leads into his own backyard.
He might just be a decent fellow who would never trespass and tear up another man's wetlands.
I just don't know. I must give him the benefit of the doubt.
;)
I pedal on, back onto the road where there is no guardrail to push me into traffic.
;)
I took this as I drove past in my car, on my coffee break.
I would have driven slowly across this bridge so that I could have gotten a couple more frames out of the pocket camera, which is a very slow camera to operate, but there was a truck behind me so I had to rush across and was lucky to get even this one.
Technically, I have somewhat exceeded cocoon mode tonight. Oh well. The weekend has begun. I must have a little fun.
*Cocoon mode: Until I finish up a big project that I am working on, I am keeping this blog at bare-minimum simple. I anticipate about one month.
Reader Comments (2)
The light yesterday afternoon was fantastic! Glad you got those pics. As for the old guy 4-wheeling past someone's barricades...grrr.
fall from your car! Bwahahahaha!