Do,Do,Do,Do!

One of my former students, the ebullient (don't you ever use that word in copy Heather) Heather Burke, is shooting, editing and reporting for a TV station in Roswell, New Mexico. I am so proud of her, and it's very auspicious (don't use that word either) that I would hear from her today.

You see it was July of 1997 that photographer Mike LeClaire and I spent a week in Roswell.  It was the 50th anniversary of the reported landing of an alien craft northwest of town. As a Norwegian, I am a born skeptic. As a journalist I am a practiced skeptic. But you know what? I think Mike and I both walked away from there scratching our chins saying, "hmmmm!"

For now? Just put that in the back of your mind. You'll need it later.

I know some of you have had it up to your ear muffs reading about all the snow in Denver. Big Deal!

But please bear with me at least one more time. You might be entertained.

My morning routine is: Get up around 6 AM, put on some pants, walk down stairs, open the garage door, walk out and get the paper, walk back in, close the garage door, climb the stairs, and go find SOME place to read the paper and do the Celebrity Cipher.

Well that routine gets seriously interrupted this morning. Up at 6 AM, pants on, head downstairs........

"What's that I hear?"

It is THE DREADED sound of anyone living in a place where the mercury drops below zero for any period of time. Drops below zero and then one day the thermometer creeps back up over 32 degrees.

(By the way today marks the 35th day in a row of snow on the ground here. It's an official record for you trivia nuts.)

Well, what I HEAR is WATER running.  I run to where the sound is greatest, the kitchen sink. From past experiences water should be flowing over the edges of said sink turning the kitchen into a swimming pool.

For those of you who live in Mediterranean climes...the likely scenario here is that whilst below zero a water pipe somewhere in the house freezes and then expands.  When it expands? Unbeknownst to you, it cracks that silly little pipe. And when the temperature gets a little more temperate? You get it.

But why is nothing coming out of the sink? 

"Okay Paul, don't panic.  Check all the toilets. Toilets check!"

This is getting way too weird.

"Showers, bathtubs? Showers, bathtubs check! Peggy we gota problem. Get up and help me search for a water pipe break!" 

Down to the basement. 

"Basement, hot and cold water lines? Check. Basement dry as a fossil!"

"I don't get it!"

"Me neither! Let's go back to the kitchen sink. That's where it's the loudest."

"Couldn't be out there on the deck, could it?"

"How? We took the hose off, winterized it and shut it off tight. That just can't be."

"Well I think we have to check it, don't we? Go out there!"

And so I did, and guess what?  Down underneath a foot and a half of snow, water is gushing out of the tap.

"Oh, no it must be cracked, we'll have to call the plumber. What's his hourly rate up to, anyway? With this stuff happening all over the place we'll probably be 2,000th on his triage list."

"I know it doesn't make any sense. But just for the heck of it try shutting off the valve."

"Right! OOOKAAAY."

TWIST (a quarter of a turn to the right to be exact.)  The running water noise is gone. There is no broken pipe. There is no leak. SOMEONE (or something) has opened our backyard water valve a quarter of a turn in the middle of winter.

"BUT WHO?" (or what?)

You see here's the deal. The valve is buried under a foot and a half of untouched snow. There are no human footprints leading up to it. We have a salamander show up once, but I'm unimpressed with its grasping skills.  We have a lot of wild rabbits around. But to my knowledge they've yet to evolve opposable thumbs. AND there are JUST no prints of any kind leading up to the tap.

SO.....WHATCHA THINK? ALIENS MAYBE? 

I can't think of any natural physical principle that would cause such a phenomenon. I'm sorry but ALIEN is the only answer I can come up with. And I did see that odd sunset up there last week?

And isn't it interesting that I should hear from my friend Heather from Roswell today. Well there will be no cover up here. 

"Heather I'm available for an exclusive interview. I've got home video of the snow?"

You know this could be some very important corroborative evidence.  If these ALIENS happen to be from Mars?  And they go to all this trouble to get water?  Aren't we talking WATER up there on the Red Planet? I THINK SO!

Just a thought.

Do,Do,Do,Do. (Courtesy: Close Encounters of the Third Kind.)