That car was still there this morning when I drove by, which in itself wasn’t so odd because people sometimes abandon their cars for a day or two if they’ve had engine trouble. The odd part was the fact that the police cars are also still sitting there, although the lights aren’t flashing anymore. So maybe they’re doing some kind of stake-out at that abandoned diner. Who knows.

Ride into work was so easy compared to yesterday. No traffic at all. I turned on NPR for a bit but it was full of reports of fighting going on all over the place and there are mornings when I just can’t stand hearing about it anymore, so I switched back to my Abba. Because everything is better with Abba.

Anyway. Strange thing happened this morning. The place where I work sits right on the levee beside the Sacramento river. We’ve got a great view of the water, and a never-ending distraction of wildlife (coyotes on the other bank, the resident blue heron, the occasional family of river otters) and of downtown Sacramento in the distance. When it’s nice out, there’s the occasional boat bobbing about on the water, with a fishing line sticking out of one end, and a slumped figure in the other (I suspect more napping than actual catching of fish ever happens). In the summer, when the weather is nice and the weekend is approaching, the river starts to get more and more crowded with a noisier type of crowd – the college kids in their boats with their music turned up extra loud. But rarely do we actually see anyone in the water itself. It’s kind of murky, that water, and I suspect it’s also pretty cold, and it’s claimed its share of bodies over the years, the most recent (that I know about) being the guy who used to live in the huge houseboat that was docked downstream. One night he got too drunk and went overboard, and wasn’t seen again, or so the story goes, as told by the management company rep who passed it on to the rest of us.

So when we see someone in the water this early in the morning, it’s kind of a surprise. It’s only happened once before, last summer when the it was so hot outside we’d started the annual joking around about diving into that river ourselves, just to get some relief, and my boss and I tracked down the office binoculars to see if the guy was okay. He seemed to be – bobbing along happily, looking around from time to time, and there were enough boats on the river that day that we figured if he was in any danger, he could have called out and gotten help.

This morning, however, there are no boats on the river. Just the body, floating downstream. The current’s pretty slow today – no wind to speak of this morning – so we had time to get out the binoculars. I think it might be a dead body, because it’s pretty pale and bloated and it looks like there’s a big gouge out of the side of the head, like he smacked into something pretty hard, but my coworker swears she saw the guy turn his head to look around. So she’s called the police, to see if they can send someone out to rescue the poor guy, since he doesn’t look like he’s in great shape, if he really is still alive, and if he’s dead, well, it’s still probably best to get the body out of the water. I still think he’s dead, though. Can’t see how anyone could look that banged up and still be alive.

bliteotw