Deja Vu & Instant Karma Too

About this time every year, our lawn gets trashed by someone with an urge to drive on it. Last October 25th, for instance, one of the two gals who sped back and forth across the lawn ended up on our drain pipe. (The account is the second half of this post.) This morning, I noticed some idiot* had attempted to trash the lawn again. Deja vu? (*I use the term "idiot" because an intelligent person wouldn't do this.) He probably thought he'd get a big laugh out of us having our lawn torn up again.

Now, the lawn damage wasn't the first thing I noticed when I went out to feed this morning. The first thing that caught my eye was the mare from down Novelty Road who'd come to visit my horses, which prompted Melody to kick out a fenceboard while the dogs barked like crazy and the barn kitties frantically circled around to be fed. After feeding horses and cats (the dogs had to wait), I went back to the house to holler to hubby to call the horse's owner and to grab a little extra feed, get the halter and lead, catch the horse and start walking up to the intersection where the horse's owner soon appeared.

As the visiting mare and I walked up Listening Hill Road, I noticed tracks along the edge of our lawn and some marks into the juniper that covers the beginning of our drainage ditch. Back in the house, I might've mentioned this to my husband after I told him the fence needed fixing. Then I took a shower, had more coffee, and got onto the Internet.

My surfing was soon interrupted by hubby asking me to photograph the damage. As I did so, we reconstructed the crime. Someone turned from Novelty Road onto Listening Hill and—after clearing our mail box and big rocks—turned onto our lawn. Since we were still up at eleven last night and didn't hear anything, it must have happened late.

There was a scattering of hoar frost early this morning, so the grass was pretty slick. Plus the ground was still soggy from all the rain a few days ago. Anyhow, you can see the tracks here. The driver was careful not to hit the white rocks around my flowerbed:

Eventually the tracks exited the lawn and continued across the road:

 A bit farther down, the tire tracks appeared wider and further apart. How can this be? Because the driver over-corrected when he came off the slick lawn and then slid sideways—into our drainage ditch.

Here's the view from the other side:

The drainage ditch is open under the spreading juniper. Then a pipe goes under our bottom driveway (just the other side of the juniper), continues underground for a while, goes under the pavement, and drains into the pasture across the road. You can see the angle a bit better in this picture:

 The vehicle left some deep gouges:

Let's take a closer look:

We figured the juniper cushioned the vehicle as it slid into the ditch. Maybe it saved the idiot's life. We couldn't figure if the vehicle overturned or not. Some gashes were cut in the pavement in front of our driveway. The gashes were in the tire tracks. How did that happen?

We decided from the marks on the pavement and some other tracks that the the idiot needed help to get out of the ditch. Someone apparently pulled him out, and they continued on down Listening Hill Road. We figured the vehicle must have sustained some serious damage.

We didn't bother to call the cops this time—at least not yet. We figured the idiot will have to shell out for car repairs and maybe new tires. Maybe he learned a lesson: You reap what you sow.

Karma—you gotta love it when it happens so fast! Our lawn will grow back. Tires don't grow back.

Heh, heh, heh.

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