Mirage, Mirage, On The Road…..

Mirage, mirage, on the road….

Who drove most straight and with caution slowed?

C'mon, now.....don’t make fun of that verse; it took me quite awhile to think it up. The first line was easy, but not so the second. The little-used poetic muscles in my brain are stiff and flex with much creaking…..they need some grease!

I took the mirage photos while driving to Oelwein yesterday to pick up a new grille for the front of our lawn tractor. The old grille fell off the other day while I was mowing……obviously, I couldn’t see what had occurred and ran over it, smashing it to smithereens. The new one cost $99.

Anyhow, yesterday was the first time I’ve ever had the notion to try and snap a photo of a mirage. Aren’t they just the most intriguing phenomenon?! We, the viewers, “incorrectly interpret this sight as water which is reflecting the sky, which is, to the brain, a more reasonable and common occurrence (than seeing the sky on the road!).” (From the Wikipedia article about mirages.)

The mirage of water on the pavement is an example of an “inferior” mirage……inferior because it is seen BELOW the real object (the sky, in this case). “Superior” mirages are seen ABOVE the real object. I believe I've seen such a thing when looking at the eastern horizon early in the morning, when the sun is not yet high in the sky. Farm buildings and trees are visible then above the line of the horizon, but later in the day it is impossible to see them. I’ve always wondered about that and now know it is a form of mirage!

The road to Oelwein took me through the town of Fairbank, where the annual summer celebration is drawing near. In the photo below…..read the banner carefully. I hope the town fathers received a discount on this particular item……

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While driving, I was pondering the stunningly tragic death of Coach Ed Thomas which occurred yesterday morning in Parkersburg, about 30 miles from here. Coach Thomas is very well-known in our area. I inadvertently caught him in a photo this spring while at a track meet in Parkersburg, right next to the site of the new high school being constructed to replace the one demolished in last year’s tornado. The sign in the background reads “Ed Thomas Field”.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the Thomas family and to the communities of Parkersburg and Aplington……and, to the shooter’s family, also residents of the Parkersburg area. A very, very tragic event. Ed Thomas’ son said, “God always has a reason.” And, he asked for concern and compassion to be shown to the family of the shooter.

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