I’m not entirely sure why I chose this wrecked pier on the northeast most tip of Occom pond, I feel drawn to it for a feeling I can’t really explain why. I live in South House and in all honesty it’s more of an inconvenience to myself to have to walk all the way over past North Park for each entry. The pier is lopsided, tilting to the left, some of the planks have completely sunk and are overcome by algae, there are some safety cones that seem to have been put in place to prevent anyone from stepping onto this rickety old pier but they have clearly been thrown out of the way by someone who maybe like me also felt inexplicably drawn to this pier. I saw a fish swim by in the dirty water. I’ve never caught a fish, though I’ve always wanted to. I’ve gone on two day long fishing trips in my life and both times I caught nothing but trash. The first time was back in 2022, I went with my uncle to a lake that was about an hour drive away. Whole time we were there not one person on the entire lake even got a bite… then all of a sudden I had one on the line, everyone’s eyes were on me. I reeled it in and fought the fish as hard as my 13 year old body could, if only someone actually taught how to catch a fish past casting your rod. I reeled the line in all the way instead of yanking it onto shore and it got off the hook, landed in the shallow water, and swam away. The whole pond booed me, it was a rough day for me. Anyway that was almost 5 years ago now and I’m at a different lake (fun fact, Occom Pond is actually a lake.) I see 4 trees with entirely red leaves already, 7 yellow, and the rest are all green, back home in L.A. the trees were the same color all year round. The trees remind me of a Van Gogh painting. I like Van Gogh. There are also quite a few mosquitoes, I heard an old couple walking past complain about them, which is weird because well… I’m just saying if I was going to run into mosquitoes anywhere it’d probably be near a rickety old lake pier with cattails and Algae.
Sinking Occom Pier
This This noticing happened a week ago and I wrote these observations in my field notebook. I am only today recording what I wrote.
I ran into my friend on the way over here and explained to what I planned on doing. He referred to it as a dock and after checking a dictionary, I decided that it is probably better to refer to this place as a dock rather than a pier. He also told me about a cat that may stop by here every once in a while named Leo, I look forward to seeing him, though I might’ve already I’m not quite sure. Today on the pier, I noticed five cigarette butts leading me to believe that there is some other melodramatic so similar to mine that thought it was aesthetic to have a couple smokes while staring off into the distance on this dock, I find it interesting me and whoever this lonely smoker is are very similar in the sense that we if you’re drawn to a sinking dock, but unlike him, I would never touch a cigarette. I noticed in the cracks of the dock where it is partly sinking. There are some table mushrooms growing from the side. I did not notice them previously, but I don’t know. I find it interesting I think it serves as a reminder that life can originate from the most bizarre circumstances. I also noticed to my right there is a bush of cattails, I like cattails I never saw them in real life before but I know them from any cartoon or media that involved a swamp. There are a lot of bugs gliding over the water, making ripples in it. For some mysterious reason, I feel inclined to call them water bugs. The trees are slightly more yellow. It’s quiet.
I’m back at the dock. It’s a sunnier day than usual, but there’s lots of foliage on the surface of the water, the season of the sticks is fast approaching. The smell is absolutely putrid and it’s comparable to the smell of the drying concrete on the nearby road when I was walking over here nonetheless it is absolutely stunning. The light is reflecting off the water the water. It looks blue instead of green, like it has in the past, there aren’t any bugs around as far as I’m concerned I haven’t seen any. The cigarette butts from last time are now gone, thankfully. One of the traffic comes I mentioned in my first noticing is now halfway sunk into the foliage water. Trees haven’t changed much since the last time but this time I noticed this one tree it has the most beautiful shade of red I think I’ve ever seen, I wish I could turn it into a pencil and right with that shade of red everywhere. It feels almost like I’ve died, and I’m in the afterlife a beautiful paradise where the sky and water is the same shade of blue, the tree leaves are falling to add some beautiful ambience everything except for the smell that is, is paradise.
There isn’t much to notice today, which I guess in itself is a noticing. There’s not many bugs. The foliage from last time is gone. There’s no trash on the pier like usual it’s just peaceful again. Ashley scratch that, right next to me is a wet, sandy hair tie. I don’t know why it’s wet or why Sandy or why it’s here on the dock. I can’t imagine how it ended up here. Did someone with long hair drop it into the water, then want it enough to reach back to get it only to not want it after they realized it was dirty? Because I could only imagine after you drop it into the lake it would come back dirty so what would be the point of reaching for in the first place? Its not like you didn’t know it would come back way and with a little bit of dirt or sand on it. But I digress. There’s also a wet cigarette butt. Between the cracks in the dock and submerged in water is this tiny, wet, brown cigarette butt. Maybe it’s a metaphor, once burned and now drenched in water, dirty while burning dirty in the water it’s environment has completely changed and it’s cleanliness not much. I wonder if this is a new cigarette butt or one of the three I noticed a couple weeks ago, and if the melodramatic smoker came back to this spot like I, a melodramatic writer, have.