Field Notes - Dispatch 3 – Palm
Desert
Hello Fellow Adventurers!
Life continues on at a leisurely pace
here at the country club. However, I did make a small faux pas at
one of the hot tubs last night. When I arrived no one was about and
I settled in to soak and watch the sunset. Nice hot water right up
to my neck, not a sound but the birds singing in the trees. A while
later three chaps well into their golden years came by and joined me.
When one of them got out I did not think anything of it and just
continued visiting with other other two.
About thirty seconds later I felt the
force of something large enter my trunks and, of course, instantly
screamed, “Snake!” I pretty much levitated straight up and
landed beside the pool in my best Ninja fighting stance, dripping,
but ready for defensive action! It was only then that that I
realized I must have been sitting directly on a high presser nozzle
in the pool and the guy who had got out had turned the jets on full
blast.
Because of the alignment of the nozzle
I found myself somewhat pressurized by fizzy, chlorinated, water and
my eyes felt like they were bulging out. This was in fact fortuitous
because the pressure must have flattened the lenses in my eyes and
for a few moments I could see with absolute clarity that there was no
snake. Whoops!
Realizing my mistake I hollered, “False
alarm, boys! No snake!” By this time, only seconds, from my
initial alarm, I saw the old timers just topping the pool's eight
foot security fence and dropping into the rose bushes on the other
side. Gosh, their maneuver was completed as handily as a team of
young gymnasts! I was very impressed and of course walked over to
explain my small mistake and congratulate them on their dexterity.
Strangely, they were not amused and did
not appreciate my earlier warning one bit. They used some language
that one does not often hear in polite society as they pulled rose
thorns from one another, and I had to wonder if these three really
were the type I wanted in my hot tub.
