The Disrespected River

 I woke up to a beautiful grey sky this morning. Before long, I saw sprinkles on the skylight. It's cooler than it has been and I was able to close a window, which helps keep some of the noise out. All of this makes me enormously happy. The weekend is supposed to be a few degrees cooler still and we can expect heavy rain. We need the rain. It's been unusually warm for the time of year and day after day, week after week of bright blue sky. The risk of gorse fires has been high and the river on one side of us is running very low. Now all the garbage people throw into it is more visible. Bill saw one of the women who works at the bar cleaning up the area where the smokers hang out. She picked up a plastic cup and tossed it over the wall into the river. It probably got stuck in the greenery on the riverbank, but will make its way to the river eventually. The poor river is so disrespected. 

It's been quite a show over there in recent weeks. One evening, I was making tea and while I was waiting for the kettle, I was looking out the window. I did a double take then sputtered to Bill, 'Droopy is taking a piss over the wall!' Droopy--no idea what his actual name is--is the guy who runs the bar and lives above it. We call him Droopy because there is always a risk that his pants will end up around his ankles at any time. I've seen more of his rear end than I'd like, I can tell you that, and on this night, he was displaying the other side. I get it that sometimes nature calls at inconvenient moments and one must take the call, but was it really necessary to do this outside in view of Main St, near an entrance to a business where people are going to eat and drink? Presumably there are bathrooms inside and the guy's own apartment is just upstairs. The tourists have started arriving--can you imagine being a tourist and deciding to stop in there only to find some guy pissing into the river? Personally, I'd be turning around and going elsewhere. Then again, I live here and I'm turning around and going elsewhere. 

Not long after that, it became clear that they were having wastewater issues once again. A few times over the past few months, a tanker sort of truck with hoses and things dangling everywhere has backed into the driveway, guys have jumped over the wall and peered and poked into an opening in the riverbank which provides access to the wastewater pipe. They've run the big hose there and turned on the water at high pressure. This time there were no professionals in sight, just handyman types who have been around doing various odd jobs. They poked. They prodded. They peered into the depths. They wiped their brows. They stood there. They poked, prodded, and peered some more. Then one guy donned a cloth mask, like those we used to wear during the pandemic. He pried up a manhole cover in the driveway, got on his knees, stuck his face very close to ground level, and with a small spade, began to shovel up mounds of white stuff--shovelful after shovelful. I was thinking that it would be a good idea for him to have more than a cloth mask on his face, but what do I know. The other guy stood on the riverbank and watched. They left for the day. The next day, they were back. They started digging a trench on the riverbank to expose the pipe. Then they got to the concrete cube that's part of the bridge. They had a jackhammer and some kind of saw to cut through the concrete. One guy wore goggles. The other had his cloth mask on again. Clouds of concrete dust were billowing into the air. We went out that day and when we returned, they were messing with the pipe. I shudder to think about the quality of the job they did. I'd expect wastewater leakage from the pipe, which is still exposed. I don't know about these kinds of jobs, but I do think that if it was me, I'd want professional people doing the work. Yes, these guys were probably cheaper, at least in the short term. But when there's more trouble, Droopy might wish he'd had a more professional job done. Or maybe he just doesn't care.

All I know is that it's depressing to watch people disrespecting the river the way they do. Smokers toss their butts over the wall, people throw trash into the river, and who knows what kind of wastewater is entering the ground and eventually the water. When we first came to Glenties, someone joked with us that we'd see salmon leaping out of the river. If there were salmon, I'm sure they'd be far too ill from human pollution to leap anywhere. It's sad.

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