June 3, 2021 Thursday

   I've wondered what the bottom of the ocean would look like if all the water could be drained in a flash. For one thing  there would be lots of surprised fish flopping about. If this happened near a city, there'd be lots of shopping carts and refrigerators and unmade Mafioso.

   I read that immediately before a tsunami hits, the water near the shore withdraws, then rushes back in a giant wave. When a munitions ship blew up in Halifax Harbor in 1917, the harbor bottom was exposed for a few seconds. Both these methods of seeing the bottom of the ocean are by chance only as well as being dangerous for the onlooker.

   I took advantage of a third option yesterday afternoon by driving south from my home towards the town of Trail, Minnesota, a distance of 65 miles. Teresa and I were on a mission to pick up a mobility scooter for her father Enar, age 103, who lives in an assisted living apartment at the Warroad Senior Living Center.

   Enar used to get his exercise by walking to the dining room three times a day. But when Covid-19 hit, the dining room was closed and his meals were delivered to his room. Enar could have exercised by walking around the facility, but at 103, he said, forget about it. Enar's leg muscles weakened. He was no longer the man he had been at 102.

   Enar had asked previously about a scooter, but the family said no for fear that he would become dependent on the scooter. Also, Enar had had several close calls before the family took away his car in his nineties. There was a fear he'd run into a fellow old timer at the home.

   But now he really was a candidate for a scooter. Teresa thought it was worth giving her father a chance for some mobility for his final few years. She called Marty, our local VA rep. Yes, Enar would be eligible for a scooter, but there was a process. The next step was a call to Altru Hospital in Grand Forks. The man there said the VA process could take months. He said he might have a shortcut.

   A couple of days later a coworker of the man at Altru called. Her father had gotten a scooter from the VA and now that the father was deceased, she would be willing to loan it to Enar, no charge. So that's why we were driving across the bottom of glacial Lake Agassiz yesterday. The ancient lake bottom is flat. There are lots of trees and the crops in the fields are just greening up. It's the time for spraying the fields for weeds so there were lots of trucks and tractors on the road.

   As I say, the lake bottom is flat. No Mariana Tenches, though you could find fossils if you knew where to look. The lake had been formed many thousands of years ago by a melting glacier. At one time the lake had an area larger than the Black Sea. When it drained quickly 8,000 years ago, it raised the level of all the oceans about five feet which affected weather patterns everywhere, even boosting agriculture in Western Europe. 

   As I pondering these earth shaking consequences, Teresa got a text that the battery on the scooter was shot, but that it was easy enough to push. So we got the scooter loaded into the truck and headed for home. My thoughts were no longer on sea bottoms but on matters of battery procurement. 

Ancient Lake Agassiz with Scooter