Those pesky acequias.

I believe I have blogged before about the water irrigation ditches found on the side of nearly every Mendocino street (other than Arístedes and Colón, I’ve noticed – but there are ton more, I’m sure.). They are about 3-4 feet deep , or so. They carry running water around the city to water the plants that they planted here way back when, because we’re smack in the middle of a desert.

They built the acequias to injure people.

Not really. But, I know a lot of people who have fallen in one, drunk or sober. I’m now a lucky member of this not-so-exclusive club.

Mendoza

I don’t know how it happened, but I ate sh*t yesterday on my way home from my massage. Maybe it was the fact that I was so relaxed after a stressful day. Maybe it was the spiderweb I was mesmerized by, so much so that I took an ill-placed step and ended up waist-deep in my concrete ditch. Luckily for me, there was no water in this one on this day.  However, concrete ledges, when one scrapes one’s both legs on them, hurt like a b*tch.

Adding insult to injury, no Mendocino passerby offered to help me or ask if I was okay. I dusted off my now-dust-covered jeans and wiped my bloody, scraped palms together. Embarrassed, and used to falling in such a manner, I grinned. But I died a little bit inside.

I called my mother soon thereafter to recount the story, and her reaction? “That nevah woulda happened in New YAWK. People think we’re all rude, but I’ll tell ya – New Yawkas woulda stopped and helped ya.”

Maybe.

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