Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I was awoken a few ticks before 4:30am by David crowing.  I was out the door at 5:23am.  The weather was nice.  I saw a police vehicle at the stop sign and it slowed down to check me out.  It wasn't too dark.  There were some clouds that were providing reflection from the city lights.  I looked upward and estimated between 40% and 50% coverage.  As I was about to enter the Floodway I detected the unmistakable odor of moss.  The Canal must be getting filled up.  I got to Brown and crossed the Floodway to the Canal.  The water was gushing through the radial gates.  There was water once again in the Canal.  Did they fill it up yesterday and I not know because I didn't run?  I looked down in it.  It was dark, but it didn't look full.  Hard to tell.  I could see the reflections of the clouds in the water and every now and then would spot the outline of a duck.  I got to Adobe and once again could hear the water gushing through those radial gates.  I didn't think about it at the time, but the water doesn't usually gush through.  When the Canal is full, the gates open from the bottom and water runs underneath.  This does cause some turbulence, but not a gushing turbulence.  At the half way point between Adobe and University is a well.  It only gets used about once a year.  When I passed by it, I looked down in the Canal and it was as dry as a bone.  What the heck?  I could've swore I just saw water!  I ran back to the other side of the well.  Clouds!  There's water.  Am I going mad?  Back to the other side, and ah ha!  Here comes the water.  It was just barely moving along despite the gushing sounds at the gates.  I guessed there couldn't be more than 1 cfs (cubic feet per second) moving through.  I wondered at this rate how long it would take to fill the Canal.  Maybe I'll do some math later.  Seems like it would take a while.  I texted my buddy Brad at the District to tell him that I had just passed the water as it was filling up the Canal.  I told him that I guess I'm faster than water.  Probably not the text he wanted to see before 6 in the morning.

I decided to do 3 loops today since I missed yesterday for no good reason.  I continued down to Main.  Once I crossed University it got darker.  I looked up and now it looked like there was only 20% to 30% cloud coverage.  There was quite a bit to the west of me, but nothing above or to the east.  I ran to Main and went to the other side of the Floodway.  Before I got to University, I saw a man in his backyard in the 55+ community.  His porch light was on.  I said good morning to him.  Right before University is their tennis courts.  There were no lights on, but a dog started barking at me.  I then saw the owner telling it to be quiet.  Since he probably heard me tell the other guy good morning, I said good morning to him, too.  I crossed University and looked down at the wall to see if I could see Jeff.  His sleeping bag was there, and it looked like he was in it.  On the other side of the wall is a small little neighborhood park. There's an opening in the wall for access.  Looking through the opening I saw another person.  Where are all these people coming from?  I looked at my phone and it was 6:06am.  I didn't think I was going to see anyone, but within two minutes I had seen 4 people.  I saw one more person before I finished.  They were wearing a headlamp.  I contemplated yelling at them that if they hurry they could catch up to the water.  But that would've been weird.