Singin' In The Rain

Actually, no. It was more like cursing in the mist.

It was a beautiful sunny day and I felt like walking a little, so I walked along the road between the Yongsan North Post and South Post this morning on my way to the USO to pick up a plane ticket. That road is lined with 10-15 meter tall trees. On my side of the road, there was a big yellow tanker truck stopped and a man with a hose and nozzle standing on the sidewalk. I had barely passed him when I was suddenly enveloped in a really heavy mist. I looked back and the guy with the hose was spraying the tops of the trees. The mist was coming down on anyone on the sidewalk and all of the cars driving by - many with their windows open. I got soaked.

Now I don't know for sure what he was spraying, but he was spraying the leaves at the top of the trees. If he had been watering the trees or putting fertilizer on them, he would have been putting it at the base of the trees on the roots. It had also rained yesterday, so the trees didn't really need water. I think he was spraying either pesticide or herbicide. If it was a pesticide, at the very least, it was mildly poisonous.

At any rate, I picked up my ticket at the USO and went into the office. Instead of staying and working in the office, I gathered up some essays to mark, came home, showered, and changed my clothes. If it was a pesticide, it was probably designed to be absorbed fairly quickly through contact, so the shower was probably too late, but I feel cleaner now.

I'm not totally against the use of herbicides and pesticides, but they could have closed the sidewalk and a couple of lanes of traffic while they sprayed, and they could have done it late at night when the traffic is light and there are few people out.