2004-04-08

Take a Gander at YOUR Water

That�s what I commute every day, Monday through Friday, to work.

Well, I�m not sure if it�s really what you�d call commute, since technically I live in St. Louis County, and I also work in St. Louis County. Not like living in Jersey and commuting to NY or anything.

But St. Louis is like that. A bunch of small towns (the various suburbs and communities), all rolled into one big small town (the actual city and its surrounding county). The area of the county where I work is so far removed from the area of the county in which I live, as to be two entirely different cultures.

But I digress.

23 miles each way, and one does a lot of ruminating and cogitating and all that other thinking-type stuff. Some of which is as uncharitable as "the things you see on the highway when you don�t have a gun handy!", and others more along the lines of "Oh, look! Yet another strip mall going up. Oh boy".

However, I live really close to the river and it�s only a block or so out of my way to take the river route for about 2 miles to the highway, and again on the way home. It�s a beautiful drive, if you make sure to look to the river and not the inland side, where all the litter collects. What is it about people that compels them to trash a place as beautiful as, well, as anything is outdoors. Sheesh.

Anyway, the river road. On this road is a water treatment plant. Mind you, it�s not our water treatment plant, even though it�s only about a mile from our house (our water, I�m told, comes from the Missouri River, not the Mississippi � go figure). But as I�m driving along, admiring the scenery, watching the gulls and occasional hawk, and hoping for one last sighting of a late eagle, something catches my eye.

Now, I pass this thing every day, and usually I glance at it and think, "yup that�s the water place". This time I happened to glance over just as a flock of Canada Geese flew over.

And landed right there into one of the half-dozen holding tanks. Or filtration tanks. Or whatever-the-hell-they�re-called tanks.

Now, I just know I�ve seen this before. I mean, there�s no lid on these things after all. And they�re each about the size of some sort of sports field. But a flock of geese just landed in my water supply!! Well, like I said, not my water supply, but someone�s water supply. Geese. With undoubtedly muddy feet, dirty bills, and other goose-related stuff. Like stray feathers. Pthew.

Ok, I think. It�s not like they�re in my sink or anything. No big deal. They DO clean the water after all (don�t they???) before we actually get it in our faucets. And do I really want to think about what�s really inside the faucets? Uh uh ... no, I don�t.

So I�m thinking all this and laughing and then a big commotion catches my eye.

Isn�t goose mating season over already?

Someone should tell the geese in my water supply then, because they were fornicating in my water supply! (Well, not my water, etc. etc.) Geese! F%^&ing in the water supply! How do they clean goose jism from your water, eh? Someone tell me that!

*sigh*

Now I know that Anheuser-Busch is the reason we have such good water here. And I don�t dispute that!

But I wonder if Auggie knows that geese are fornicating in his beer ingredients?

Pthew.

Walk in Balance

(and don�t drink the water)

Mitakuye Oyasin

(even the geese)