Pages

Monday, March 30, 2015

Looking for spring and another story

The park calls this "Brier Rose Farm,"
another euphemism for property they did not need to purchase,
have no use for
and have no money to maintain. 


However, the postman is quite happy it is a trail head with facility.


Looking out over the hills.
Today was beautiful, but cold.


Tree trunks.
I like them.


Kendall Lake, in the park.


Several years ago it had to be drained.
It became too silted in and shallow for the volume of water it handles,
And would be dredged.

When it was empty, Oh, the stench!

It was properly cordoned off, warning signs posted. 
The drive to the parking area is locked every night.
In short, if you could read and think, all would be well.

Two young women were visiting. 
One said "Oh, I lost my ring in this lake years ago,"
and went out to look for it.
Into the stinking muck.
It held her fast.
It rose to her armpits before the level stabilized.

Her friend called for help, 
and our EMT's showed up.

They laid all the plywood available at the local lumber yard on the mud's surface,
and crawled out to her as if it were an ice rescue.
She was so stuck they could not lift her.
In the end they secured a harness under her armpits, which were below the surface,
as were her arms.

They used a crane, on hand from the dredging operation,
to begin lifting her.
The entire rescue took about eight hours.

Paid for entirely, as I've mentioned from time to time,
by the fewer than seven hundred citizens of the township, 
many of whom are children.
Allowances are not taxable.

37 comments:

  1. So you had to pay through the nose for someone else's stupidity! I think they charge Climbers for rescues, but lots of these clowns have no money.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hari OM
    What a diamond.... ...the one she was chasing I mean... why else would she have been so blinded as to not see??? Strewth... LOVE the look of your day. We're in the middle of red-warning gale-force storm as I type... YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. If she'd done without the ring all those years...
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is this a true story? Seriously?!? She should volunteer for this township to the rest of her life. After all she owes them...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Some people are just plain stupid, missing any degree of common sense. I can't imagine what all that cost. She should donate that ring (when/if it is found) toward the cost. (Head shaking here...)

    ReplyDelete
  6. There really are some dumb clucks about.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. The good news is that she was saved. The bad news is that there are really stupid people out there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. We really don't invest nearly enough money into researching a cure for stupidity.
    And sigh on the burden being carried by your community.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Joanne, you're an amazing storyteller - such a gripping read.

    And so much in life goes betterl if a person can read and think. Especially think.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh my, that is quite the story!

    It does look so lovely there despite the cold. I'm sure now that March is almost over you will soon feel the warmer days. We are getting a LOT of rain so it feels a bit chilly at night though during the day it is getting too warm for a jacket (at least for me). Have a great Easter week!

    ReplyDelete
  11. That is crazy! They should have charged that girl...or her parents. How crazy to go out there !!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. My gosh the stupidity of that person to go looking for her ring at your town's expense! Its too bad the park doesn't make people pay for things like this, especially when it is done totally out of stupidity!

    betty

    ReplyDelete
  13. I know that was not a funny story but I am laughing at the picture in my mind of that woman up to her shoulders in mud. Too bad you didn't get pictures at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Good grief! Sounds like quicksand. It's really scary though. I can imagine what it must have been like to be pulled out by a crane. I'm sure she'll never live that one down.

    ReplyDelete
  15. We have a family song, just for those sort of situations, it goes like this: "Spoooot, spot the looney!"

    So this park, does it have cabins by any chance? =D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It has a youth hostel and a primitive overnight camping area.

      Delete
  16. I have spent a lot of time over the years at Virginia Kendall park -great memories - started going there during high school- never knew they drained it. Well it has been some time since I have been down your way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It refilled after they dredged it. I always wondered what or where the water went when it was drained.

      Delete
  17. And the funny thing is the stupid girl probably doesn't realise it was her own fault.

    ReplyDelete
  18. EvalinaMarie's comment above was spot-on. She should be ordered to pay back at least some of the cost through volunteerism.
    Ah, if only we ran the world.

    ReplyDelete
  19. OMG, how horrible. What an ordeal.

    ReplyDelete
  20. well, as my brother likes to say...PAS. People Are Stupid. as if she had a snowball's chance in hell of finding a ring she lost years ago. she's lucky she didn't sink all the way.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Never underestimate the stupidity of the average person. She should have to pay at least some of the cost.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Unfortunately, there is no depth, that stupidity cannot sink...

    ReplyDelete
  23. You know, if there weren't for people like her, we'd have nothing to laugh about!

    Also, a little birdie told me it was your birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOANNE! I sincerely hope you have a fabulous day, filled with lots of things and people like that silly stuck lady for you to giggle about! ox

    ReplyDelete
  24. We have daft people like that over here too Joanne.
    Happy Birthday!

    ReplyDelete
  25. That reminds me of a boy who was trapped 11 feet under a dune. It was one of those "came back to life"
    situations. It happened a couple of years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  26. She was very lucky to survive - thank goodness for our rescue services.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Wow more proof that truth is stranger than fiction. Also proof that we live among idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  28. i know this is serious but somehow all I could picture was a beached whale. Sure wish you had pictures of that. Looking at the house, I would be tempted to just call it Briar Patch. Glad i don't live in such a place.

    ReplyDelete
  29. i know this is serious but somehow all I could picture was a beached whale. Sure wish you had pictures of that. Looking at the house, I would be tempted to just call it Briar Patch. Glad i don't live in such a place.

    ReplyDelete
  30. After all those years, did that woman really think her ring would be still sitting on the surface of that mud, just waiting for her? A thoughtless act necessitating hours of expensive rescue work.
    I like the look of the old brier Rose farmhouse.

    ReplyDelete
  31. talk about quick sand, she was lucky, yikes, things are starting to green up around you, wonderful to see

    ReplyDelete
  32. Oh dear, what a ghastly experience! (Though by her own fault). Makes me think of Lord Peter Wimsey, when he sinks into the moor. He had his dear Bunter - not your EMT.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I would say that she probably won't do THAT again, but if she did it once, I'm sure she's not that smart to not try it again :) That would be an odd way to "go" though :)

    ReplyDelete