Anatomy Of A Lock


Locks are kinda cool. But talk about too much of a good thing. At the start of the journey and again right at the end a cluster of 26 locks greeted us - something to do with getting the canal over a bloody big hill. On the return I walked half a dozen or so of them with Miss Wendy. We took lotsa photos, taunted cows and explored abandoned buildings.

For those at home I decided to dissect the experience. Here we have two locks in very quick succession. At most of the locks you get a rusted blower which can be used to shout "Score!" at the lock dude. Then we see Boofhead (tête du boeuf) examining a lock control device and then positioning himself for a hurl on the grass. This lock had the "cut the blue wire" demolition brain teaser - it was not preceded by a stronso. The gate leaks a bit and as you can see from the water levels we are still ascending the hill at an enormous rate.

The gate also serves as a bridge and we see Miss Wendy has crossed to examine Boof's carrots. We also see Bob not jumping on Dino and Lance looking very smug about his rope work while Alex and Dino hold down the fort on the party boat.

All sorts of maneuvering ensues - the gate shuts, the horse has bolted and Boof distributes a couple of quiet ones. Old Shand ponders. (We have all these damned ropes so that the boats don't gate crash or get too intimate.)

Time to hang out while the water level gets it together. Shane does the bridge sobriety test - carry camera and Kronie while playing with your nipples. The gate opens. The chill boat is free. Alex does a visual penis joke thing, Dino laughs, and we get the hell outta there.

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© 1999, Bruce Ellis: brucee@chunder.com, Home.