Model Citizenship

In our next tale, we have both a model citizen and a couple of not so model citizens…One lazy Saturday afternoon at Lopez Lake - a great little jewel for weekend getaways -, I had the pleasure of witnessing the good, bad, and the ugly in row-boating behavior.

The weather on this particular day was very nice - about 70 degrees and clear. There was, however, a bit of wind blowing across the lake - with some gusts upto about 3o mph. The lake level, as you can see in the pictures, is down to about 80% - exposing many reeds and branches near the shore making for a difficult time for those boaters not able to negotiate the wind and resulting near-shore currents.

While we were enjoying a little lunch from our campsite on the top of a hill, we noticed a small rowboat drifting precariously close to the shore and branches - eventually it became entangled in the trap. 

The boat remained stranded for several minutes as the operators (looks to be one child and one adult) thrashed around with their oars trying to free themselves.

While they eventually did free themselves from the reeds, they found themselves no match for the on-shore winds and currents - They finally beached it. At this point, they sat in the boat trying to free themselves with their oars from inside the boat - to no avail.

Finally the model citizen in our story came to their rescue - walking into the water to free the stranded boaters.

So - here is how it all breaks down:

• Two boaters - wearing life jackets and weighing down the boat -remained seated in the boat while another individual pushed them out of trouble in knee-deep water - NOT SO MODEL CITIZENS
• A stranger walking into the water to free two people who seem to have no interest in helping themselves - A MODEL CITIZEN, INDEED!

This is yet another example of a severe lack of basic common sense - if it wasn’t for our model citizen in the story, these two “boaters” may very well still be stranded…

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